


Dungeons and Dodongos

by Veiledbyamask (LegionOfMany)



Category: Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-01-06 10:59:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18387086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegionOfMany/pseuds/Veiledbyamask
Summary: We all know about the many adventures of Link throughout the centuries, of the countless challenges he had been faced with in Hyrule and beyond and of all the villains he has bested again and again... But what happens when a new danger arises, and neither hero nor princess are in sight?Join us in our LoZ D&D adventure, taking place roughly a century after the events of Breath of the Wild to find out!





	1. Goat Stampede

Fado village. A quiet, peaceful settlement by the shores of Lake Hylia. Until fairly recently, it didn’t exist. 100 year ago, after the Hero defeated the Calamity, Hyrule steadily started to recover. Homes were rebuilt, towns were restored, and new villages, just like this one, sprung up across the countryside. 

It was a couple of travelers who broke the quiet in the serene little town. There was a group of four- a Rito, a Goron, a Gerudo, and a Zora. Practically strangers, they had only been traveling together for a day or two. And they weren't the only visitors; There was also a pair of Sheikah who just arrived from the opposite direction. 

There was nothing strange about this. travelers passing by were common place in Fado village, as it’s connected to the main road. A few friendly smiles and nods are exchanged between the two groups- Just a small, polite greeting of acknowledgement. And that would’ve been it. If it wasn’t for _Xaphyr._

The Twili burst onto the scene, rushing in front of the two groups, screaming like he’s being chased by a mad beast. The beast in question turns out to just be an overly-joyous dog. However, the Twili, unaware of the pup’s playful intentions, is fearing for his life. He doesn’t watch where he’s going, and crashes into a fence, rather forcefully. 

From the other side of the fence was a realization, and then chaos. There was a cry for help, a plea carried on the wind, before a mad stomping of hooves approaches.

A flock of goats, too numerous for the groups to count in those brief few seconds, bursts through the hole in their pen and rushes into the open, scattering in all directions. 

The first to step in front of the stampede is Pleco, the Zora. Unnaturally tall, with a mouth full of sharp teeth and a deadly trident on his back, he looks more ready to _eat_ the goats, rather than help. However, as one of the goats charges close, Pleco kneels down and wraps it in a hug. The animal struggles, bleating in confusion, before resigning itself to its fate, realising there is no breaking free. The Zora is amazed at how soft the goat is, having never seen one before. 

Kaasha, a Gerudo with short hair and a no-nonsense air about her, tries to mentally keep track of how many goats are breaking free of the pen. She can’t quite get an idea of how many there are, but notes that there’s too many for them to all grab at once. That, however, doesn’t stop Yura, one of the Sheikah. After seeing the Zora successfully grab a goat in a hug, she tries to do the same, with _two_ goats at once. However, this proves to have been a bit too ambitious, and she instantly loses her hold on both of them. 

The other Sheikah, Janai, has a different idea. A wry smile crosses his face and he runs at one of the escaping goats, but he doesn’t try to grab it. Instead, he jumps on top of the goat and tries to ride it. The poor animal jumps and bucks, and while Janai has fun for a few moments, eventually the goat sends him flying to the ground. He grins, though it looks slightly pained. 

Gado, the Goron, decides to try and pick one up. However, the squirmy little thing struggles out of his grasp and falls to the ground. The Rito by the name of Kimi, flies over to try and calm it down, but it doesn’t help much. The goat is extremely distressed of what just happened. 

And all the while, Xaphyr who started all this has been hiding behind a tree, terrified of the friendly dog sitting on the other side, wagging its tail and enjoying the excitement. 

The farmer, shocked and in disbelief of what just happened, stares at the strange group for a few moments, stunned into silence. His senses soon come back to him, and he strides forward, panic starting to take over. 

“You- please, help me!” The group watches him as he approaches. “Please, those goats- I need them. They’re my livelihood, if I don’t have them, we go hungry. Please, you broke the fence, please bring them back!”

As he speaks, he approaches Pleco, who is still hugging the goat. “Please, may I have my goat back?”

The Zora shakes his head, and the farmer looks even more upset. “No, it’s soft.”  
However, as if sensing danger, the goat manages to wriggle free of the hug, and runs back to the farmer. Pleco pouts. 

The farmer takes a deep breath to try and calm himself before he tries again. “Please. I need those goats back. If you manage to bring them all back, you’ll be rewarded. I promise.”

That succeeds in getting the attention of the rest of the group. Especially Yura’s. 

“How much?”

The request catches the farmer off guard, and he turns to her nervously. “Well, I, uh- you’ll be rewarded, I assure you.”

The Sheikah narrows her eyes at him. She guesses that, as a farmer, he wouldn’t have much to give. Still, it’s better than nothing.

And so, the group splits off to go searching for goats, while the farmer stays behind to mend the broken fence. 

To say it went well would be an overstatement. 

Oh, they manage to find the goats, sure. However, it wasn’t without a fair share of interesting events. For example, the Bard, Gado, decided it would be a good idea to try and serenade the goats to bring them back to the farmer. It doesn’t work particularly well, his intense drumming only adding to the overall chaos. 

Janai climbs up a roof to scout from above, and doesn’t see much- but he does manage to drop his weapon in the process. When he tries to retrieve it, all he finds are pebbles, which he gladly pockets. 

While Yura left with the idea to hunt down some goats, she got heavily distracted by a card game. Eventually, she decided to join. Gado and Kimi began arguing about what goats looked like. 

Pleco nearly stuck his face into a pile of chicken poo when he popped his head into a coop to have a look inside. And when Xaphyr managed to find a goat behind the coop, Pleco and Kaasha got into a fight over who would get to carry it. The Gerudo had used a spell to put the goat to sleep and saw it as her natural right to carry her spoil back, but Pleco grabbed the snoozing animal anyway and evaded the sorceress' staff as she tried to whack him in anger. It turned into a wild chase as Pleco ran through the town, while the furious Gerudo threw fireballs at him. The spectacle drew a lot of attention from the townspeople, some amused, others worried.

However, even if things had a rocky start, the group eventually began to bring the goats back to the farmer. 

Xaphyr manages to befriend one of them, marveling at how strange these creatures are. Gado and Kimi get into another debate when Kimi couldn’t spot the very obvious goat hiding in the bushes. 

Pleco, once he reaches the fence, is unsure whether to return the sleeping goat to the pen or keep hugging it. His indecision is cut short when he’s tackled by Kaasha. It takes her, the farmer, and Yura (who finally managed to get away from the card game) to pry the animal away from the Zora. Eventually, the poor goat was returned to the pen, leaving the tall fighter disappointed and goat-less. 

Janai decided to try to help fixing the farmer’s fence, however, he’s not very good at it. Kimi, however, is. Between the three of them, they manage to construct a temporary fix.

After taking a few moments to calm down and introduce themselves to each other, the group set out again to try and find the last goats. Well, except for Janai. He tries to look for a weapon shop to replace the weapon he lost while he was on the roof. He doesn’t find one. However, Yura finds a goat. And, determined to show her own strength, carries it back to the farmer. Good job, Yura.

Xaphyr, much to his dismay, doesn’t find any goats. Instead, he finds the dog again. His worst enemy.

Pleco manages to find a goat on a small island in the middle of a pond, and swims over to it. He tries to appear non-threatening- however, he looks like a big monster shark creature, and the goat is terrified. It quickly jumps into the water to swim to freedom. Pleco tries to grab it, and is kicked in the ribs. He tries again, and this time, the goat has to resign to its fate. When Pleco brings the goat back to the barn, he actually manages to put it in the pen. However, rather than being helpful and look for more goats, he stays at the fence with the farmer and Gado to pet them. 

Kimi is able to spot two goats from the air- one by the barn, and another by another pond. She goes to the two Sheikah to tell them about the goat’s positions. Kimi and Yura head towards the pond, while Janai goes for the barn. He’s ready to try and ride a goat again. It’s round two. 

The goat dashes when Janai gets close, but he’s not deterred. He chases after it and eventually he’s able to catch up, climbs up on it and starts to ride. The goat kicks and bucks, but Janai holds on, doing much better than he did the first time. The townspeople are even starting to take bets on how long he’s going to last. However, the goat manages to throw him off eventually, and he lands in the dirt, breaking his fall with his face. 

Kimi and Yura have an easier time with their goat. They find it grazing on some berries and foliage. The two sneak closer and try to coax it with more berries, but the goat doesn’t really care. After all, why would it care about _their_ berries when it had plenty of them right in front of it? Kimi decides to simply grab the goat and carries it back to the pen, while Yura feeds it berries along the way to keep it calm.  
As they walk through town, they can see Janai still trying to ride the goat. This time, he tries to lasso it. But the goat charges away, and Janai gets tangled up and is dragged along. Luckily, Xaphyr was close by, and he casts a spell to calm the goat down. He removes Janai from the rope. Janai gladly lets him. 

Finally, believing that all goats are back in the pen, the group gathers around, thinking their job is finished and they can get a reward for their hard work.  
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. As the farmer is counting his goats, he realizes there’s one still missing. 

The group begrudgingly heads off to try and find the last one, minus Gado, who stays behind to serenade the goats and enforce the fence. The poor things had a rough day, and they need some music to relax. 

Kimi flies up into the air to look for the goat, but to no avail. The group spends a while looking behind buildings and in bushes, but they eventually come to the conclusion that the goat probably isn’t in the town anymore. They might have better luck in the field.

By the gate, Yura spots goat tracks. They lead further out, and the group starts to follow her as they leave the safety of the village. After no long time at all, Pleco sees something in the distance- something that looks startlingly like what they are looking for!

The goat is calm and grazing, and doesn’t notice it’s being tracked by a ragtag group of adventurers. Janai and Kaasha start looking for berries that they might be able to tempt the goat with.

Pleco and Yura however, start sneaking up on the goat. Yura wants to quickly bring it back to the farmer to get the reward. Pleco wants to hug it. The Sheikah is the first one to lunge for the animal to try and grab it- but something else leaps up from the grass along with her!

Five oozing blue orbs emerge from the ground, surrounding the group. The chuchus eye the adventurers, expressionless, as most of the party grabs their weapons and prepare for battle. 

Janai and Kaasha don’t notice. They’re still looking for berries. 

Yura attacks first. She really wants that reward, and she’s not about to let some oversized blobs of acidic jelly ruin her chance at getting some extra money. She swings her short sword at one of the chuchus, stepping in front of the goat to protect it. If the goat dies, she can say goodbye to those sweet rupees. Pleco attacks next, drawing his trident and slashing at the chuchu. Next up is Xaphyr, who throws a dagger at the slime, but it gets stuck inside the monster’s body. The slime is jiggling and glancing around.

It’s gaze lands on a target, and it launches itself at Pleco. His skin stings where the slime touched it, and he realizes that these things aren’t just big and kind of adorable. They’re deadly. 

Kimi has an idea. Seeing how many targets there are, she prepares a magic spell to attack everything nearby, counting on the rest of the adventurers to be able to survive. She lets loose with a magical electric blast, which hits everyone, including the goat. The animal is freaked out by the shock, and the chuchus all wiggle. Pleco falls over. Electricity isn’t good for fish. 

Janai hears the sounds of combat and realizes there’s a battle going on. He stops foraging for berries and charges towards the fight. Kaasha, on the other hand, hears the sounds of Pleco screaming in pain and chooses to ignore them. She’s still angry about the fiasco from earlier and feels no sympathy for the Zora. 

The next attack Yura deals to the chuchu causes it to explode into a puddle of harmless goop. Xaphyr’s dagger drops on the ground, and Yura yells for Kaasha to come and help. This time, the call isn’t ignored, she holds no grudges towards the Sheikah. 

Pleco gets up, twitching a bit, and attacks one of the other chuchus with one hand, and pets the goat with the other. The goat is, understandably, freaked out. However, not nearly as as much as Xaphyr when one of the chuchus jumps at him. Kimi and Yura both attack a chuchu, and taking a note from Pleco, Yura pets the goat as well. It’s not nearly as freaked out by being pet by a normal looking person.

Janai arrives and manages to sneak attack one of the remaining chuchus, doing a good deal of damage to the unaware creature. Kaasha arrives at the scene and fires off a fire bolt at the monsters, but her attack misses. Pleco misses his attack as well, so he pets the goat to help himself feel better. 

Kimi attacks one of the chuchus and yells at it, but the chuchu is unimpressed by her shouting. Yura attacks while it was focused on Kimi. The chuchu wiggles like it was about to explode, but stops. It doesn’t get to enjoy not-exploding for very long, though. Janai attacks, and the chuchu bursts like a balloon. The same thing happens to another other chuchu when Pleco charges at the monster with a powerful strike. Chunks of slime are scattered everywhere, some of it splattering against the horrified goat. Pleased with himself, Pleco smiles joyfully and waves at Kaasha, genuinely happy to see she’s joined the fight. The Gerudo glares at him, but cannot help but be slightly impressed by his fighting display. 

Xaphyr picks up his dagger and throws it at one of the remaining chuchus while Kaasha follows up with a firebolt attack, the slime doesn’t stand a chance.  
The last chuchu tries to jump at Kimi, but she manages to dodge out of the way. With one shot from her crossbow, the creature explodes, and the group of adventurers is victorious against their first monster encounter. 

They celebrate by cheering and hugging and petting the goat. The poor thing is understandably freaked out, but frozen in place it cannot do much. The hugging and petting continues. 

Everyone picks up a few pieces of loot from the monsters, consisting of chu jellies and a few rupees they had seemingly absorbed over time. The amount is uneven and the group starts to discuss how they’re going to split it, when the idea of a group fund is introduced. 

“Wait,” Says Yura, “If we have a group fund box, does that mean we’re sticking together?”

There’s silence for a moment as the group realizes what that means, exchanging glances with each other. Pleco smiles. “Well, I wouldn’t mind that. You all seem nice, I wouldn’t mind sticking around for a while!”

Everyone ends up getting five rupees as a reward for slaying the monsters. The extra twenty rupees, the money that couldn’t be split up evenly goes into the group fund and is entrusted to Kaasha. She looks like she is responsible with money.

Kimi approaches Pleco, bringing her hands to his arm and using her magic to heal him. “I’m sorry for shocking you earlier,” She mutters in embarrassment, her feathers poofing up a little. 

Pleco smiles. “It’s fine. I didn’t mind! It was a good attack!”

The group triumphantly re-enters the town, bringing the goat along with them. They proudly bring it back into its pen, where it is glad to rejoin its goat friends. The farmer is grateful as well, and invites the group inside. There they meet with the farmer’s wife, who sets to patching everyone up after their battle, thanking them for bringing all the goats back. 

Yura promptly asks about the reward, that’s the only reason she helped with this in the first place. The farmer looks uncomfortable for a moment, before setting 100 rupees in front of Kaasha. Some of of the group members are a little apprehensive accepting the money, it’s pretty clear he didn’t have much. Kaasha, on the other hand, has no qualms about it and adds the 100 rupees to the group fund. This farmer was sharp, Kaasha decides. She’s clearly the most reasonable person here.  
Before she puts away the money box, she offers five rupees to Gado. Even if he wasn’t there for the fight, he’s still part of the team. 

The house is warm and alive with the excited voices of the adventurers telling tales of how they bravely found each of the goats. Some brag about their goat riding abilities. Some talk about how soft the goats are. Some roll their eyes, others smile and laugh. But even though they may be proud of today’s adventure, this is only their beginning.


	2. A Message

The adventurers settle down in the main area of the two farmers’ home. It’s a fairly big house, and despite the large group, it’s not cramped at all. Yura and Kaasha both decide to look around while the others rest. The Gerudo explores to sate her own curiosity; the Sheikah, on the other hand, has a bad case of sticky fingers and starts looking for things to swipe. Fortunately for the goat farmer, Yura doesn’t find anything valuable enough to catch her fancy. It seems the 100 rupees he’d given was the extent of his wealth. After a short while, they join everyone else to the dining area.

The farmer, the group learns, is named Sino. His wife, who is in the kitchen making dinner to thank the travelers, is called Tesha. 

Kaasha sits down and immediately asks Sino who, or what, he had to fight in order to obtain the house. Sino is, understandably, confused. 

“I...what?”

“Your house. It’s very big. You don’t make much money, how were you able to afford such a large house?”

Before Sino can even begin to reply, a pillow smacks him directly in the face. As he pulls it away, he spots Janai trying to hide behind a chair. Apparently, he’d been trying to hit Kaasha, but missed by a mile, instead hitting the poor farmer. 

Gado gives a full laugh, and tries to explain to Sino that the actions of his new friends means that they like him. This does nothing to make the farmer less confused. 

By some grace, Tesha arrives with food, looking rather amused with the shenanigans. She comes, holding a large bowl of soup, and several smaller bowls to dish everyone up. As she sets it down on the table, Pleco reaches forward and tries to grab some pieces of meat he can see in the stew. 

Tesha spots him and smacks his hand away. He withdraws, but only for a moment. A few seconds later, when she’s distracted by filling everyone’s bowls, he manages grab a piece of meat floating near the surface. But it doesn’t go completely unnoticed. This time, Kaasha is the one to smack him on his head. 

Janai, seeing Pleco’s successful attempt at sneaking food, feels inspired to put his own pickpocketing skills to use. However, when he tries, Tesha grabs his wrist. She says nothing, but gives him a stern look. Janai backs off. And when Tesha hands out bowls to everyone, Janai gets his food last. 

Tesha sits down near her husband, laughing heartily as the adventurers hungrily digs in. She decides to ask where everyone comes from. 

However, not many of their guests seem to hear her question. Xaphyr is too busy trying to determine if the food put in front of him is edible. It doesn’t look like anything he has ever seen in the Twilight Realm. He eventually determines it’s safe to eat, probably. 

Janai, wanting to give food swiping another chance, is determined to take as much as possible of Gado’s soup and put it into his own bowl. The Goron doesn’t understand why his bowl is emptying so fast compared to the others. He guesses he must just have a big appetite! 

Kaasha turns her attention to the Twili who is hesitantly eating his food. 

“What are you?”

Xaphyr stops eating and nervously looks down. “I- well, I’m a Twili. What are you?”

Kaasha seems irritated by the question. 

Sino and Tesha share a glance. 

Kimi, who is a polite and attentive bird, finally answers Tesha’s question. She says she came from a mountainous region. Tesha is pleased someone is paying attention and turns to Janai, repeating the question. Janai gives a vague answer. “Around.” 

Sensing he didn’t want to answer, Tesha turns to Xaphyr next. But after the harsh questioning by Kaasha, Xaphyr wasn’t up for talking and mumbles something vague as well. 

Tesha and Sino look at each other, and smiles with forced politeness towards their guests, clearly wondering what sort of people they’d let into their home. 

Pleco suddenly speaks up, and asks Sino, “So, those things out there- those are goats?”

Sino, happy to have a more normal conversation, answers, “Yes! I take it you like them!”

“I do! They’re so soft, they’re great!”

“Be careful,” Kaasha warns Sino. “He’ll probably try to steal them.”

Pleco seems interested in the idea. He hadn’t thought of that. 

“Ah,” Sino notices the look on Zora’s face. Before Pleco can say anything, the farmer hastily suggests, “I think you should go after wild goats instead.”

“You think so?”

“Oh, definitely.”

By now, both Tesha and Sino have scooted away from their guests a bit, the former no longer looking quite as amused. 

It doesn’t take long before the hungry adventurers have eaten most of their dinner. Tesha stands to clear the bowls, and Kimi gets up with her to help do the dishes. Before she leaves, Tesha smiles a little more genuinely now, and says the group reminds her of her children before they left the house. One can see why. Most of them act like a bunch of children. 

As Tesha and Kimi leaves for the kitchen, Pleco inquires Sino about goats again, asking him why he became a goat farmer in the first place. 

“Well, it’s a long story. You see, when I was a boy, I was out in the forest. And while I was out there, a terrible, frightening monster charged at me, screeching in rage. And before I could run, a goat had stepped between me and the monster, protecting me from the beast’s wrath. And from that day on, I decided that I would do everything in my power to make it up to these wonderful creatures.”

The group was listening with rapt attention.    
“That must have been a terrible monster,” Pleco exclaims. 

“It was,” Sino said with a laugh. “It was my mother.”

After a beat of silence, Pleco and the rest of the adventurers at the table burst into laughter with the exception of Kaasha- she’s convinced that Sino’s father had actually managed to bed a monster.

Speaking of bed, as the night wore on, the adventurers eventually retired to various rooms in the large house. Most of them went right to sleep, but Janai decided to spend some time on the roof, admiring the clear view of the night sky. Pleco spent some time with the goats, petting their soft fur. 

The night passes quietly. The peace of Fado Village returns. 

At the least for the night. 

Early the next morning, Sino and Tesha were up and about, knocking on the doors of the adventurers. Some were already up, bright-eyed and ready to face the day. Others were groggy, not used to getting up until lunchtime. The farmers went from room to room, asking everyone to please gather in the dining room as soon as they were ready, briefly explaining that apparently something big was happening!

At the news, it doesn’t take long for the group to file into the dining room. Tesha explains that a messenger from the capital had arrived, and would relay news from the castle to the whole town in about twenty minutes. They would have to eat breakfast fast and hurry to make it there. After all, an announcement from the castle was sure to be an important one. 

Everyone sits down at the table and starts to dig in, all curious and excited to know what the message from the castle would be. As they eat, Yura stealthily tries to take some of the apples and sneak them into her bag. However, she’s not nearly as stealthy as she thought she was, and nearly  _ everyone _ at the table notices. Especially Tesha. 

The farmer’s wife gives Yura a hard stare, and Janai imitates it with a similar look. Kaasha reaches over and tries to pull the food out of Yura’s bag. Yura seems to realize that trying to steal from your host is kind of a bad idea, and shamefully puts the apples back on the table. Everyone witnessed this. Surely this will never be brought up again. 

Tesha sees Xaphyr looking at some of the apples hungrily. However, he doesn’t try to steal them, unlike Yura. Tesha smiles and informs the Twili that he can bring them along if he wanted. With a shy thanks, Xaphyr takes two apples and puts them away for later. 

After breakfast, the adventurers leaves the house and heads over to the town square. There’s already a sizable crowd gathered, quietly discussing what sort of dire circumstances might have been necessary for the castle to send out a messenger like this. 

Pleco is very excited, saying hello to everyone new he meets. 

Soon, the messenger steps into the middle of the town square, pushing back his hood to reveal a middle-aged Hylian, his semi-long hair tousled from the ride. The crowd falls silent as he glances around, pausing before he speaks. 

“As most of you know, I have travelled here from the castle. I’ve come with an important message from his Majesty, King Rhoam II, that I need to share with all of you.”

From the crowd, the sound of a single excited Zora voice can be heard going “Alright!!”

A few people glance in Pleco’s direction, but the messenger continues speaking, unfazed by the interruption. “The King himself is requesting all those proficient in fighting and magic to get to Castle Town in five days time. He needs all able bodies to report for a mission of great importance.”

“What sort of mission?” Asks a voice from the crowd.

The messenger shakes his head. “I am unable to give any more details at this point in time. What I can tell you is that all who are capable of carrying themselves in a fight and willing to take on a challenge are requested to gather in Castle Town. More will be explained when you get there.”

Another voice raises up from the crowd. This time it’s Pleco’s.    
“Will there be a reward?”

The messenger nods. “Yes, you will be rewarded for your troubles.”

The notion of a reward interests Yura. Janai is in turn interested because she is interested. Pleco shouts “Alright!” again.

People in the crowd start glancing at the group, some laughing and whispering amongst each other. Most of them had witnessed the goat-wrangling adventures from the previous day, and likely thought the group was eccentric, to put it nicely. 

After Pleco’s second embarrassing outburst, Kaasha and Xaphyr both scoot away from the Zora, trying to act like he’s not with them. Pleco has other ideas, though. He slings an arm around Kaasha’s shoulders and smiles widely.

“Are you up for it?”

Kaasha elbows him in the gut as hard as she can. Pleco, however, takes it as a friendly show of affection. Yura makes a mental note to not get on the Gerudo’s bad side. Though, it’s probably already too late after the apple incident. Kaasha tries to escape Pleco’s friendly hug. It’s not working. 

The crowd begins to disperse. Although the message was fairly short, it leaves many people murmuring to themselves about why the king wants so many adventurers. As the crowd leaves, Sino and Tesha walk over to the group. 

“So,” says Sino “Are you planning on going to Castle Town?”

Everyone in the group nods and says they’re going. Sino and Tesha look kind of relieved. 

“I wonder what the King needs fighters and magic wielders for,” asks Tesha. “I guess we won’t know for another five days.”

Janai scoffs. “You know, I bet we could make it to Castle Town in four days!”

Tesha and Sino glance at each other. “Well,” says Sino, “I hope not, considering it only takes a day and a half to get there on foot.”

The conversation moves on to supplies for the trip. Sino and Tesha takes this opportunity to say their goodbyes. They wish the group the best of luck, and hope they stay safe on their journey. They start to leave, but Pleco follows after them.

“Do you have a map?”

“Ah, sorry. We don’t have one,” replies Sino. 

The fighter seems sad for a moment. But then, he smiles, kneels down and gives Sino and Tesha a big hug. “Thank you for helping us. Please take care of the goats for me.”

The farmers give an awkward laugh and promise to take care of the goats. Tesha pats Pleco’s cheek, balancing on the tips of her toes to reach him, even as he is kneeling. He eventually releases them, and returns to his new friends. 

The Zora comes back just in time to see Janai try to scale a building, only to fall on his butt. Pleco shoots him an amused grin and Janai glares in return. On his second attempt to climb the building, he’s successful. He tries to see which direction the castle is, but there’s a hill in the way. 

After Janai relays his information about the hill, the group heads to the top to see if they can spot it from there. 

From on top of the hill, the imposing form of castle is visible, off in the distance. It would be difficult not to spot the beautiful structure. It towers above the rest of the landscape. While the castle might have been under siege just a hundred years ago, it has recovered quite nicely, and the Town beneath it has become a bustling metropolis. 

Before leaving Fado village, the group decides to check out a local shop to see if they have any supplies. Kaasha looks around to see if they have any maps, but she doesn’t see anything in their price range that would be useful. However, she realizes there’s a lot of money in the group fund. They never split the 100 rupees that Sino gave them the other night. And so, she hands out ten rupees to everyone in the group. 

Even with the increased amount of spending money, Yura tries to haggle with the shopkeeper to buy two potions for the price of one. He’s unimpressed, and doesn’t budge. Pleco goes in to help. And by help, he tries to intimidate the shopkeeper. 

“You might want to give us those potions. Wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to your store.”

Unfortunately, to anything else but goats, the Zora was visibly baby-faced, and the shopkeeper isn’t afraid, at all. Instead, he pulls out a knife and sets it on the counter, never once breaking eye contact with the fighter. 

“I think you and your friends might want to leave before things get ugly.”

Fortunately, Kaasha steps in, defusing the situation. She pays full price for a potion, and the group hurriedly leaves before they’re kicked out or stabbed. 

As they’re about to head out, the party overhear some townsfolk talking about the King’s messenger. Apparently, he’s at the local tavern. A few of the party members decide it might be a good idea to get some more information from him before they leave for Castle Town, just so they know what they’re getting into. 

Janai sits on the roof of the tavern while the rest of the group heads inside. That’s the Sheikah way. 

Even in the busy environment, Yura is easily able to pick out the messenger. She pushes her way through the crowd in the tavern, the rest of the group trailing closely behind. 

As the Sheikah gets close to the messenger, she reaches out and grabs his wrist. She wants to try and pull him away into a quieter room so they can talk, but before she can do anything of the sort, the messenger pulls out a dagger- having been startled by the strength of Yura’s grip -and instinctively aimed to jab the blade into her hand. She lets go before the weapon descends. The messenger regards her with a cold look. 

Apparently, he had been getting questions all day from curious townsfolk and is in no mood to deal with more. However, that doesn’t stop them.    
Getting an idea, Pleco approaches the messenger. He knows the perfect way to get him to talk.

“Don’t you know who I am?” the Zora asks, trying to go for recognition rather than intimidation this time. The messenger looks him up and down and shakes his head. “I’m Pleco the Great!”

The Hylian is less than impressed. In fact, at this point, he’s downright annoyed. 

Yura then tries to bribe the messenger for information, and hands him a whopping ten rupees. He laughs in her face, not even bothering to try and hide the mockery in his voice as he informs Yura of the pettiness of her offer. Kaasha jumps in to talk some reason into him, and Xaphyr tries to help. Kimi also follows up with a reasonable argument, explaining that the group was going to head to the castle, and they just wanted to know what they were getting themselves into before they left. 

After all this pestering, the messenger finally caves. 

“Listen,” he grumbles, “I can’t tell you much, because I don’t know much myself. I’m a messenger, not a confidant. What I do know is that there’s bad things happening. There’s this temple close to the castle. An independent group of adventurers has reportedly disappeared there. The castle sent a bunch of soldiers to investigate. And they haven’t come out of it yet.”

The news is unnerving, but now the group has an idea of what to expect, even if only faintly. They leave the tavern, and the messenger is glad to see them go. He isn’t paid enough to deal with this. 

Kimi makes another quick visit to the shop to see if they have any ink and paper. They don’t. The shopkeeper gives her a dirty look all the while she walks around. He doesn’t want her group back in again. 

Once she returns, the party discusses whether they should go to Castle Town, or if they should just head straight for the temple. If they do, they’ll be able to get the reward before anyone else. However, Kaasha is quick to remind everyone that there are plenty of temples near the castle, and trying to find the right one would take way too long, especially since they didn’t even know the vaguest of directions aside from that. It may be better to wait for the announcement instead of looking around in vain. 

And so, they finally start heading for the castle. 

As they make their way through Hyrule Field, the bards, Gado and Kimi, decide to play some music for the rest of the group. Even if the melody is a bit out of tune, it’s still a nice beat to walk to. Even Yura, the chronic grumpy-pants, ends up smiling. Gado and Kimi both notice, and it inspires them to keep playing. Janai and Xaphyr notice the rare event as well. 

They walk past smaller villages, settlements that have been rebuilt since the calamity. A few townspeople stop and watch as the odd group passes by, their attention drawn by the two bards playing out of tune. Xaphyr wonders if this is what Hylian music normally sounds like. He is suffering. Kaasha is also very unimpressed with the two bards.

However, after a while of walking, Xaphyr stops suddenly, reaching for his weapon, as does Yura. There’s something in the grass approaching them. The rest of the group, seeing their reaction, instinctively draw their own weapons as well. 

Xaphyr and Pleco can both see something ducking into the long grass. Gado is turned the wrong way and doesn’t see anything, he is very confused what this is all about. Pleco tries to crouch down in the grass and hide as well- however, as a giant shark-person, it proves to be difficult. He gives up and points out the odd shape for the rest of the group. 

Kimi, Yura and Janai decide to crouch low to the ground, trying to move closer to the thing in the grass. Gado, now having clued into what is going on, joins them as well. However, nobody notices there’s also something approaching them from behind. 

Before anyone knows what’s happening, Yura is whacked by a Bokoblin. Another one attacks Kaasha’s shoulder, and yet another tries to shoot an arrow at Pleco- however, the attack misses. A fourth Bokoblin tries to fire an arrow at Yura, but now that she’s aware they’re being attacked, she manages to dodge it. 

The battle was short, but fierce. Yura came back at one of the Bokoblins with her sword. Similarly, Kaasha fired magical daggers towards the Bokoblin that had dared to attack her. Janai and Pleco try to attack as well, but both of them miss. 

One of the creatures tries to slice at Xaphyr, but thankfully its attack swings wide and it misses. Another attacks Yura, seeing her as the largest threat. Kaasha parries a blow with her staff.

The group panics when they see one of the Bokoblins fire an arrow directly into Kimi’s chest. Thankfully, the monster didn’t pull back the drawstring with enough force, so the arrow only breaks the skin a bit, blocked for the most part by her armor. It stings, but Kimi shrugs it off like a champ. 

Poor Xaphyr doesn’t know what these creatures are. However, by  _ incredibly _ deductive reasoning, he comes to the conclusion that they are probably monsters out to kill them. And so, he whips out a dagger and flings it at the first monster he sees. Only to miss by a mile. He is trying his best.

Gado decides to insult one of the Bokoblins, shouting, “Your mother was a pebble and your father smells of brimstone!!” It somehow damages the Bokoblin’s sanity. 

Kimi, Yura, Kaasha and Janai all let loose with a flurry of attacks that severely damage the monsters. Pleco stabs a Bokoblin that’s barely standing with his trident and it gets stuck on the end like a shishkebab. Despite being wounded severely, it tries to bonk him with its club, but Pleco barely feels it.

One of the Bokoblins, sensing that they’re losing, drops its bow in a panic, instead deciding to grab a rock to try and throw at the group. It throws the odd missile up into the air, and it comes down on its own head, damaging itself. Another Bokoblin pulls back the bowstring too far and it snaps in its face. It decides to turn and run, but Gado is there to block off its escape. With a mighty hit of his greatclub, the Bokoblin goes down.  

Janai attacks another fleeing Bokoblin with his whip. It winds around the monster’s neck and  _ snaps _ it. Pleco lifts his trident into the air and then brings it crashing down, smashing the Bokoblin that had been on the end, putting it out of its misery. Kimi, the murder bird, kills off another, and Yura, determined to end at least one of the things, finishes off the last one by turning it into another shishkebab. 

The group takes a few moments to laugh and congratulate each other. As they poke around the ground, they find some Bokoblin horns and 100 rupees. Kaasha gives everyone ten rupees and puts the rest into the group fund. 

Kimi also finds five pairs of Bokoblin underwear. Janai wants them- he’s the only one who wants them. However, Kimi found them, and she will protect them. She will sleep on her treasure and guard them like a feathery dragon. 

After that encounter, the group finds a shady spot by some trees next to the road. They all decide to rest and heal up. It’s still a long ways to Castle Town, and by now, they know to expect the unexpected. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another amazing chapter written by our Zora (Thepreciousem on tumblr) and edited by Kaasha (Hime-likes-tea on tumblr)!


	3. The Fellowship of the Goat - Beginnings

After the battle with the Bokoblins, the group is resting in the shade. Some are lying down, happy to be off their feet for a bit. Others are bandaging their wounds, or sharpening their weapons. Everyone is enjoying this reprieve. 

However, their rest is short-lived. Off in the distance, they spot a figure. The figure is tall- taller than anyone they’d ever seen. Considering one of the members of the group is a whooping eight feet, this is quite a large person indeed. The party is on edge, especially after the earlier encounter. They know this field is full of hidden dangers. Several of the adventurers draw their weapons. 

What the group doesn’t realize at first, is that this isn’t a single person, but  _ two _ people. A small Kokiri riding on the shoulders of a rather tall Twili. As they get closer, the group is able to better make out their features. 

Pleco is stunned, he’s never seen anyone as small as that Kokiri. The Zora waves at them.   
“Hey!!! You’re very small!!!!”

The Twili named Dakon spots a large fish person holding a trident and waving. And, like any sensible person, turns and begins walking the opposite direction. 

The group is slightly confused. Kimi, being the only rational person in the group, decides to fly over to the two strangers to check them out. She asks Dakon and Bryn, the Kokiri, if they’re also heading to the castle, since it looked like they were going in that direction. 

Dakon lies and says they’re not going there. Kimi buys it without question. 

The rest of the group, however, are not so easily swayed. Kaasha, in particular, is worried about this being a kidnapping. And so, she stomps off towards the two strangers, intent on protecting the child from the weird-looking stranger. Everyone else follows her lead. 

Dakon and Bryn see the large group heading for them. And, rather than wait for them to catch up, the Twili start running. 

Kaasha’s stranger danger senses are on high alert when the demonic creature start to run, and she chases after them. Janai and Pleco follows after her. Pleco wants to see the smol. Janai just wants to go fast. 

When Dakon whips his head around around, he sees a group of large, scary people running after him. And so, like any rational person, he decides to go on the attack. He shoots a dart at one of the fastest members of the group- Janai. The dart does an  _ incredible _ amount of damage, and the Sheikah goes down. The group stops as Janai writhes on the ground, clearly in agony. 

At this point, Bryn, the actual sensible one, speaks up. “Why are you chasing us?”

Kaasha begins ranting about a kidnapping demon. Pleco wants to see the smol. 

Bryn is angry. She asks to be let down, and Dakon helps her to to the ground. She’s even smoller than Pleco thought.

Things between the two groups are tense for a few moments, until Dakon notices Xaphyr trying to hide behind Gado. Dakon decides to go over to the other Twili and introduce himself. Janai tries to trip him as he walks by, but Dakon ends up stepping on his hand instead. 

The tensions between the two groups begin to dissipate as the two Twili talk. Xaphyr is still extremely shy, but Dakon seems relaxed knowing there’s one of his own kind traveling with the group. He even admits that he and Bryn  _ are _ heading to the castle- Kimi is offended to hear this, as that means they lied right to her face. 

As they keep talking, Pleco kneels down to pat the top of Bryn’s head. After all, she’s very small, and has very curly hair. Bryn repeatedly tries to swat his webbed hand away, but the Zora keeps at it. Kaasha, still in protective mode, tries to wrestle Pleco away from the child. Thinking Kaasha just wants to have some fun, Pleco flips her like a pancake. 

Dakon is concerned, yet  _ intrigued _ by this interaction. 

The topic turns in favor of the two groups joining forces. After all, Dakon would like to travel with another Twili, and the rest of the group thinks his strength would be a good addition to the team. 

Janai, however, who is still on the ground writhing in pain, doesn’t want anything to do with the two newcomers. Kimi considers handing over one of the Bokoblin underpants to cheer him up, but she doesn’t. Even if she did, it’s doubtful Janai would feel better. 

Eventually, they decide that it might be good to have a few extra members of the team, and Bryn and Dakon join the group. Bryn climbs back on Dakon’s shoulders, making her the tallest one in the group. 

But before they go, they need to deal with the elephant in the room. Or, rather, the dart in Janai’s gut. 

Dakon offers to pull it out. He’s sure he can remove it without killing the Sheikah, but Janai doesn’t want Dakon anywhere near him. That dart hurt  _ a lot. _ He promises to heal him afterwards, but that does little to soothe Janai’s temper. Dakon ends up yanking the dart out anyway, without permission. Janai screams. 

“You look fine!” Dakon comments. Janai keeps screaming. 

Kimi rolls her eyes and heals the tantruming Sheikah. 

Feeling competitive over Bryn being the tallest, Yura gets an idea. She looks between Dakon, who has Bryn on his shoulders, and Pleco, who has nobody on his shoulders. She decides to climb up the Zora. He’s a little confused, but after her repeatedly slipping on his scales, he helps her up. Now  _ Yura _ is the tallest, sitting proudly atop the happy Zora. 

Seeing this, Janai clabers up Pleco as well and tries to sit down on Yura’s shoulders. There’s now a tower of three people trying to hold their balance. Unfortunately, while it might be pretty easy to keep one person on his shoulders, the same can’t be said for two. The tower quickly topples over and Janai lands on the ground. Yura lands on Janai. Pleco lands on both of them, causing the two Sheikah to get squished rather painfully. 

Bryn watches the scene, unimpressed. She’d love to walk away from these strange people right now. 

Yura gets back up on Pleco’s shoulders (again, his help is required), however Janai stays on the ground this time. Pleco is happy, and Yura is pleased. She doesn’t look quite as majestic as she think she does, but she is trying her best.

As they continue to make their way towards the castle, the group start to introduce themselves to the newcomers. 

Dakon asks for Janai’s name. He replies, “You should know it, everyone was screaming my name  _ when you shot me. _ ”

“Ah. Your name is Jenny?”

“ _ Janai!!” _

After the the introductions are over, Kimi and Gado begin playing music again. It’s not as bad as it was earlier, and Xaphyr actually finds himself enjoying it this time, Kaasha is still sceptical, thinking it’s a fluke. Gado asks Bryn how old she is. 

Bryn, being a Kokiri, doesn’t age like normal children, and isn’t sure how to respond. “Oh, you know. I’m just regular-kid age.”

The reply is met with a few odd looks, but nobody questions it. 

Dakon and Xaphyr have a conversation about the Twilight realm. The rest of the group listens in, being very curious to know about where these two came from. Apparently, the Twilight realm is very different from Hyrule. It’s darker, which that explains the odd adaptations their bodies have gone through. As they talk, Bryn tries to keep on the look for danger, but it’s hard to concentrate when you’re surrounded by so many weirdos. 

From her perch atop Pleco, Yura tries to look for goats. She doesn’t see any. They spot a small village that  _ might _ have goats, but they decide to keep walking without paying the village a visit. 

Dakon expresses curiosity and asks what these creatures are. Pleco smiles wide and gladly explains that they’re small and fluffy and have horns and they’re the best things he’s seen on land. Dakon is intrigued. 

Yura eventually gets off Pleco when she spots a deer in the distance, thinking she can shoot it and take it down. Unfortunately, her arrow goes wide, and the deer runs off. She returns to the group, ashamed, and doesn’t try to climb back on Pleco. Bryn is the tallest once more. 

As the sun goes down, the group heads to the side of the road to get some rest for the night. Gado plays some very loud music that doesn’t sound so good to Xaphyr. Kaasha confirms again that the bard lacks talent.

Dakon asks to wrestle with Pleco. He saw him and Kaasha ‘wrestling’ earlier, and wants to give it a try. Pleco is more than happy to oblige. The first time they go at each other, Pleco is able to throw Dakon with ease. But the next round, now that Dakon what’s up, it’s his turn to get flipped like a pancake. The Twili slips into the shadows, and before the Zora can react, Dakon leaps at him. Kaasha watches happily as Pleco gets rekt.

Eventually, after the wrestling match is over and Kimi plays some more out of tune music on her recorder, the group settles down for the night. Pleco and Janai have the first watch. 

The two bros chill in the darkening night. Pleco isn’t really paying attention to their surroundings, and Janai lies down and relaxes. The conversations naturally turns to goats, and Pleco wonders if there could be any around. As they’re talking, they suddenly notice something  _ white _ shuffling around in the grass. Could it be…!? They leave the camp to investigate. 

Dakon, who actually was awake the whole time, hear the two whisper in excitement and decides to follow them. He notices that the things they’re heading for aren’t goats at all, not even sheep, they’re actually two skeletons foraging around in the grass. Dakon races over and tries to stop them from going closer. Janai doesn’t react well, and turns on Dakon. 

Pleco, however, keeps walking. He sees the skeletons, but doesn’t understand that they are considered dangerous monsters. He waves hello at them. 

The skeletons look up from their foraging and see the Zora. One screeches at him. Pleco says “Hello,” in reply. They charge him. 

Janai yells for the rest of the group to wake up as he draws his weapon. However, Gado is snoring too loud to hear it. The snoring also drowns out the call for Kimi. Kaasha subconsciously hears the screaming, but chooses to ignore it. The rest of the group wakes up and scramble to grab their weapons and join the fight. 

The Sheikah uses his whip to attack one of the skeletons. It wraps around the arm one of them, pulling it loose. The skeleton is offended. Dakon attacks the other one, thrusting forward with his sword, but it gets stuck between the monster’s ribcage. Rather than trying to remove it, he slaps the skeleton. The force of the slaps cause the skeleton to crumble to pieces. 

Pleco focuses his attention on the one-armed skeleton. He stabs it with his trident, and the weapon pierces it’s skull. When he lifts his weapon, the head  _ detaches _ from the rest of the body. The skeleton isn’t dead, however. In fact, it’s chattering angrily at the Zora. Pleco is pretty freaked out. He starts waving his trident around, while the monster continues to yell at him. The remaining arm tries to reach up and grab its head. It actually manages to reach, but the arm gets pulled out of the socket as Pleco waves it around. Now he is holding onto a skull and an arm on the end of his trident. This is actually the worst. 

While Pleco is freaking out, the other skeleton reassembles its body. Janai whacks it and the skull cracks a bit. He also notices its ribcage is shuddering- he isn’t sure what that means, though. 

Dakon rushes in and punches the skeleton in the head. It turns black and shatters, dead for real this time. He strikes the other skeleton’s skull on the end of Pleco’s trident and it shatters as well. They’re both dead now. Hopefully they stay that way. 

The three loot the ashes of the fallen monsters as the rest of the group arrives, expecting a battle. Instead, they find Janai, Pleco, and Dakon, all holding their spoils of battle. They found some Bokoblin horns, four pairs of skeletal arms, and a moldy pair of underwear. Janai, naturally, takes the underwear. 

It’s time for the second watch. Dakon and Bryn are up. As they switch, Pleco salutes them with one of the skeletal arms he grabbed, before he goes off to bed. During their shift, they don’t see much. There’s a few monsters passing in the distance, but none come close enough to bother them. 

The last watch is Kaasha and Yura. Well, sort of. Bryn  _ tries _ to wake Kaasha, but she continues to stay asleep. Bryn actually wonders if she might be dead. Yura, on the other hand, wakes up on high alert. Not because of any danger, but because she’s just like that. 

Yura takes the watch alone. There are a few monsters walking about, and some come close enough to see the group, but they wisely keep their distance because how large the group is. At some point in the night, she gets tired of being all alone, and tries to wake her watch partner. Kaasha still refuses wake up, but Yura is pretty sure she isn’t dead. 

As the sun begins to peek over the horizon, bathing Hyrule Field in light, Yura spots something in the grass, not far from where the party chose to rest for the night. From this distance, she can see it has horns. And as she creeps closer, curious, she’s able to make it out: it’s  _ a goat. _

She’s going to try and catch it. 

The Sheikah sneaks up behind the animal, getting as close as she can. She then takes out some rope and tosses it and manages to lasso the goat’s horns. The goat, upon sensing it was about to be captured, starts to panic. It begins to bleat loudly

Kaasha finally wakes up to the sound of a terrified goat. Her eyes shots wide open, the sound filling her with horror. 

Janai hears the goat as well. The sound fills him with the desire to ride it. 

Everyone in the party goes out to try and help Yura grab the goat, except for Bryn, Kimi, and Pleco. Even though he would have loved to help, he’s sound asleep. 

Kaasha decides to stay behind as well. Perhaps somewhat delirious in her half awake state, she is determined to do everything in her power to stop Pleco from meeting the goat. She pulls out some rope and try to tie up the sleeping Zora. 

Pleco might not have woken up by the bleating, but he certainly notices this. He wakes and lashes out in panic. Luckily, he misses. He stares at the woman with the rope, very confused. Kaasha just gives him a deadpan look, neither denying or admitting to what she tried to do. 

Gado manages to put his animal-calming skills to good use. The goat begins to settle down, enough for Yura to pick it up. Janai wants to try and ride it, but in a rare moment of sanity, realizes that would be a bad idea, it would probably cause the poor thing to start panicking again. 

When Yura brings the goat back to camp, Pleco is so happy he’s almost crying. He pets the goat, and thanks everyone for capturing the the gorgeous little thing. Kaasha is fuming.

“So, Pleco,” asks Yura “What are you going to name it?”

“Goaty.” There’s no hesitation. 

“...What.”

“Goaty! It’s perfect!”

And thus, Goaty joined the party. 

As the morning wears on, Kimi eventually wakes up, with the birds. Bryn sleeps in, but Dakon puts her on his shoulders anyway. Pleco ties a length of rope around Goaty’s neck, now he has a leash. Everyone (except Kaasha) pets Goaty, marveling at how cute and fluffy it is. Once everyone (except Kaasha) has had a chance to cuddle a bit with the very confused goat, the journey continues. Pleco decides to carry Goaty. He’s convinced goats like to be held. 

Castle Town is now closer than ever before. Going down the path, Dakon and Janai manage to find some edible plants along the road. Janai even spots a bird in the distance- a perfect target for murder. He manages to sneak up on the bird and shoots it dead. Kimi is horrified. 

Pleco feeds Goaty some berries. Yura feeds Goaty an apple. The goat is still confused, but it decides these people aren’t so bad if they’re going to feed him. Kaasha is mentally going through all recipes she knows featuring goat meat.

The closer they get to the castle, they notice there are less monsters, and more people wandering around. As they approach the gates, Pleco decides to set Goaty down. Goaty starts to fuss, and almost makes a break for it. But after Pleco says ‘Please?” The goat calms down. It walks alongside the party now, its leash in the Zora’s grasp. 

Pleco takes out the skeleton arm he grabbed last night and waves it at Kaasha. She backs away from the insane fish person. Janai takes out  _ his _ arm and they high-five with their weird skeleton toys. 

During the Calamity one hundred years ago, Castle Town was reduced to a ruined wasteland. Homes were demolished, buildings were razed, and nothing escaped the gaze of mechanical beasts that wandered under the gaze of the black cloud of the Calamity itself. But now? The town has been rebuilt. It’s a bustling metropolis, the streets are bursting with activity, mostly adventurers who heard about the King’s decree, eager to learn more about what’s going on. There are people from every race here- Hylians, Gorons, Zoras, Rito- the group even spots some strange shadow-like creatures around. Kaasha recognizes them as Shades. Though Shades usually keep to themselves, Kaasha informes the group that they’re not inherently evil. They just look creepy, that’s all. 

As they make their way through the town, the group notices a few odd stares directed at Xaphyr and Dakon. Even though there are many races represented in the town, the townsfolk haven’t met many Twili. Xaphyr shyly hides behind Gado while Dakon confidently strides up to some guards. The guards seem a bit wary, but not hostile. They’re mostly confused at why there’s a small child on top of Dakon’s head. Understandable.

Dakon asks where the King is. 

“The King? He’s uh- he’s in the castle.”

“Right. But when is he going to make the announcement? That’s why we’re here, after all.”

“The announcement? Oh, you’re here early. He won’t be making the announcement for two more days.”

“What??” The angry voice belonged to Yura. “What do you mean we’re here early? What are we supposed to do for two days? We need to see the King so we can get our reward!”

At this point, Goaty is getting nervous. There’s too many people around, and he doesn’t like all the yelling. Dakon tries to pet it to calm him down. Amazingly, it kind of works. 

“Well,” Says Dakon, “If we’re going to be here for a few days, can you tell us where the nearest inn is?”

The guards reflect on what a strange day they’re having, but they point the group in the direction of an inn they could probably stay at. “You may want to hurry,” One of the guards say. “There’s been a lot of adventurers coming into town, you might want to get a room before they all fill up.”

Dakon thanks them and asks one last question. “Is it pet friendly?”

The guards both silently look up at Bryn. It takes them a moment to realize he’s talking about Goaty. They are a bit relieved at this.

With a destination in mind, the group heads off. Yura is sulking. She wanted to go on a quest and get a reward, right now! 

Eventually, they reach the inn. According to the sign hanging on the outside, it’s called The Golden Cucco. Like everything else during the Calamity, it had been destroyed. But now it stood proudly along the street, playing host to a number of adventurers already inside. 

They enter and head over to the front and ask how much a room is. They learn it’s 20 rupees for one room per night. However, the woman behind the counter makes a deal with the group when they realize they don’t have forty rupees in the group fund. She tells them that, if they help keep unruly customers from getting too wild and rowdy, she’ll let them stay for half the price. The group agrees. 

They head up to their rooms. The party is large, so they’re going to be splitting two rooms between them. The tavern owner gives them their keys, and tells them to head downstairs in a few hours. Pleco asks if she has a spare bed for Goaty. She laughs and says she’ll see what she can do.

Once she heads downstairs, the party lounges in the rooms, content in the knowledge they’ve made it and have a place to stay for the night.


	4. We Accidentally Started A Riot. Oops.

Pleco picks up Goaty and heads into one of the rooms. He’s sharing it with Bryn, Gado, Janai, and Kimi. The other room is occupied by Dakon, Kaasha, Xaphyr, and Yura. The tavern owner eventually comes back with a pillow for Goaty. After setting the pillow down, she notices the wiggling skeleton arm on Pleco’s back. Her expression shifts into one of  _ concern _ . She’s definitely wondering what sort of nutcases she’s let into her tavern. 

Pleco politely slides the arm under the bed so she doesn’t have to look at it. 

After she leaves, Dakon and Kimi follow her downstairs to keep an eye on the patrons like promised. Pleco pulls out the uses the skeletal arm again to use it as a back-scratcher. 

Kaasha joins the Rito and Twili to look for anyone who dares cause trouble. After glaring at the customers for a bit, she strides over to sit down by the entrance. However, she fails to perceive the very visible sign stating ‘Chair is Broken’. She, along with the chair, crumble to a pile on the floor. 

Dakon takes a seat that isn’t broken. And, while he doesn’t try to intimidate anyone, people are intimidated anyway. 

Upstairs, Pleco tries to put Goaty on the pillow the tavern owner brought up for them. Goaty, however, is a wild goat and is still nervous. Goaty tries to run, but Bryn manages to calm the fuzzball down. She’s much smaller and nicer looking than Pleco, and Goaty eventually settles down on the pillow, chewing on a corner. 

Pleco pats Bryn’s head. Bryn swats his hand away. 

Afterwards, Pleco heads downstairs, since that seems to be where everyone’s heading. He arrives just in time to see Kaasha kicking a broken chair and swearing in Gerudo. He asks if everything’s okay. She starts swearing at  _ him _ , but he doesn’t understand Gerudo. 

Meanwhile, Gado tests one of the beds upstairs to see if it can handle his weight. The bed creaks and groans, and one gets the feeling the bed is on the edge of breaking. But miraculously, the bed manages to support the weight of a Goron. What an incredible bed. Afterwards Gado, too, heads downstairs. 

Now that most of the group are at the first floor, Yura decides to take the opportunity to corner Xaphyr and try and get some answers. She starts questioning the Twili, asking what he is, and wanting to know more about the realm where he comes from. Xaphyr stutters out a few answers, but mostly, he wishes she would just ask Dakon. Unfortunately, Dakon is downstairs, and can’t save him. Xaphyr misses his Twili animal friends. Yura eventually decides to leave the poor lad alone, and goes to sit with Goaty. He needs protection.

Bryn is also about to go downstairs, but she notices Pleco’s skeletal hand dragging itself across the floor. It seems confused and bonks into the bed several times. She throws a blanket over the hand. It wiggles. Satisfied, Bryn leaves the room. 

Downstairs, nobody is causing a ruckus- except for Kaasha. She’s still swearing at the chair. The tavern owner eventually goes over to her to ask what’s wrong, and to ask if she’s hurt. Kaasha denies what happened with the chair, and wanders off, muttering to herself. 

Pleco, on the other hand, is having a great time. He’s going up to every new person he meets and introduces himself, happy to meet so many people and make so many new friends all at once. 

Kimi decides to start playing music on her recorder to put on a show for the guests. Gado, once he notices, starts cheering. His loud booming voice drives some curiosity from the patrons. Kimi, upon hearing the cheering, invites Gado to perform along with her. Gado responds with a booming “Heck, yes!!”

Gado starts playing his drum set while Kimi recites an enchanting story of adventure. Everybody is loving the show! Kaasha is in shock, she thought they were amateurs.

From upstairs, Xaphyr hears the music and laughter and gets curious, he heads down to join the rest fo the crowd. Janai,now alone in the room, gets a brilliant idea. He takes one of the chu jelly blobs he got from the fight with the Chuchus, picks a random bed, and spreads the jelly around inside. It’s the perfect sticky trap for whoever lies down there. 

Also, before he goes to join the rest, he ties a string to the skeleton arm to keep it from wandering away. He waves to Yura, who doesn’t wave back. She’s still protecting Goaty. 

Downstairs, Dakon tries in vain to fix the chair that Kaasha had destroyed. It soon becomes apparent that it’s a lost cause, and the chair is actually worse than before. It doesn’t seem to matter much to the patrons, though. They’re too busy cheering on Kimi and Gado. They end up earning 15 rupees.

The owner is extremely pleased with them, and offers them a free meal for their help. The group is happy for the offer of free food. Dakon offers to help carry the plates as the group excitedly settles down at the table. As they’re getting ready to eat, they notice they’re still missing a group member. The tavern owner sends her son upstairs to go grab Yura. 

The boy, still very young, scrambles up the stairs to go get the grumpy Sheikah. He stops in the doorway and watches her, and she watches him back. She doesn’t enjoy how he’s watching her. 

“I like your goat.” His voice is small, despite his smile. 

“Okay.”

“Can I pet it?”

“No.”

He seems sad for a moment, but his smile returns soon after. 

“I’m going to ask my mom if I can have a goat someday.”

“Okay.”

“Anyway, it’s time for dinner. Can I… can I pet the goat while you’re gone?”

“No.”

“Oh... Okay.”

Yura and the child both go downstairs. She sits down at the table, and so does the child, just as food is being dished up. Much to Pleco’s disappointment, the meal served is a vegetable stew. There’s not a hint of meat in it. He tries to pick at it, just to be polite. 

The tavern owner notices and smiles at him. “Not much of a veggie eater, are you?”

Pleco tries to look like he’s enjoying the food, trying not to be rude, but she nods in understanding. “It’s okay, I’ll see if we have anything else.”

Pleco smiles and thanks her. 

As they eat, the tavern owner’s son excitedly watches them. He asks questions about what people are, where they’re from, and if they’re adventurers. Pleco pats the kid’s head, he likes this smol.

The peace of their meal was short lived. Soon after they began eating, someone rushes into the bar, their face flushed and breathing heavy. 

“Hey- everyone! You need to get to the gates, there’s something going on! Soldiers are coming back, you need to come and see this!”

He dashes out before anyone can get a good idea of what he means. Everyone hurries out. Well, mostly. Pleco wanted to stay behind and eat some of the meat he was promised, but Yura eventually drags him out, and he runs alongside the group to see what’s going on. 

As they enter the streets of Castle Town, they notice that there’s already a flood of people heading towards the city gates. They follow the crowd, pushing their way through when they can. Yura tries to climb up on Pleco’s shoulders, but he isn’t paying attention and keeps moving through the crowd. She slips off his scales, and he thinks it was just someone brushing past him. Kimi flies above the crowd to get a better look at what’s going on, while Bryn is hoisted onto Dakon’s shoulders so she doesn’t get trampled.

At the city gates, they stop, as that’s where the rest of the crowd has gathered. The group peer out- and at first, they don’t see much. But as they watch the green fields of Hyrule, they spot movement. And as the moving figures come closer, their blood runs cold. 

Eight soldiers. One is limping along, carrying some of his companions on a rolling cart. They’re badly hurt. Three of them are unconscious. One is unresponsive, his eyes vacant, his arm missing. One seems to be unharmed, but isn’t moving. 

The gathered crowd is silent, save for a few hushed murmurs. Dakon steps forward and approaches a nearby guard to ask what happened. The guard is a bit startled by Dakon’s appearance. He hesitates before answering, as if wondering if he should be giving out this information. But whatever he was thinking, he eventually tells the truth of the matter, giving response in a hushed whisper.

“There’s a temple near the castle. Lately, it’s been spewing monsters. We had a group of soldiers go in to check it out. We sent fifty of our best men.”

He gestured to the limping soldiers, medics descending on them to try and help as they passed by. “Eight. Eight’s all that made it back.”

From atop her position on Dakon, Bryn can see the wounds are varied. She can’t quite figure out what sort of monster would deliver burns, acid damage, scratches, and ripping someone’s arm clean off. 

Yura begins to think the reward, whatever amount is being offered, won’t be enough. 

Gado and Kimi speak amongst themselves, trying to figure out what sort of temple could have done something like this. They know there are several temples around the castle. Some were built to test the legendary hero. Some were built to worship gods. And others were built to seal away evil things. 

Yura pushes her way up to the front to speak to the same guard Dakon had been talking to. She demands to see the King  _ right now. _ She speaks loud enough for others to hear, and soon, more voices join hers. As the returning soldiers are taken away to safety, more voices rise, demanding to see the King and get some answers. 

The guard is quite flustered by all the voices. While he’s distracted, the group discuss some things. They talk quietly, and Janai brings up the idea of sneaking into the castle in order to talk to the King face to face. The group is initially wary- however, Janai makes a good point. If the King won’t come out and explain what’s going on, then the best course of action is to break into the castle to talk to him themselves. 

Kimi, usually level headed, is unusually enthusiastic about the idea of breaking into the castle. So much so, that other people overhear her. Other people like this idea. A crowd begins to head towards the castle. 

The party realizes they might have just started a riot. They’ve already got an angry mob, all that’s missing are the torches and pitchforks. At this realization, Pleco looks around to see if he can spot any torches or pitchforks. He doesn’t see any, but he does find a fork on the ground. He picks it up. It’ll do. 

Meanwhile, as people are too caught up by the angry mob, Janai sneaks into the crowd and manages to pickpocket someone and steal 25 rupees. 

Pleco holds his fork aloft proudly, declaring “Onwards!”

It doesn’t take long for the angry mob to reach the castle. Dakon and Pleco are both able to push through the crowd fairly well, as they are very tall. The crowd has stopped at the entrance gates, and many are shouting at the guards to either let them in, or to let the King come out and face them. Understandably, the guards are in no mood to deal with this, and are trying to diffuse the situation and tell everyone to go home, saying everything’s under control. 

Pleco grabs the collar of one of the guards. “We need to see the king.”

The guard narrows his gaze, unimpressed. “You’re not seeing anyone.”

“Either you bring him out here, or we break our way in to see him ourselves.”

The guard tightens his grip on his weapon. 

“You’re just going to let this happen? You’re just going to sit by and watch while your King keeps throwing bodies at a problem? That’s why he called all of us adventurers here, isn’t it? So he wouldn’t have to keep throwing away his own men, he could throw away the lives of his subjects.”

“My friend was one of those soldiers,” the guard growls out “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll turn around and leave. 

Dakon tries to deflate the situation, as does Kimi, who has regained her common sense, she lands next to them and tries to explain that Pleco is just a bit upset by what he saw. Judging from the way he’s glaring at the guard, however, one could guess that’s not quite right. 

Dakon tries to calm the crowd, telling them to go home, saying they’ll be able to talk to the King when he makes his announcement. The crowd begins to disperse. Pleco stays rooted to the spot, glaring at the guard until Yura and Dakon pull him away.

From somewhere in the crowd, hidden from the eyes of the guard, Janai throws a pair of moldy underpants that smells like dead bird at the guard’s face. It’s a direct blow. Pleco is in a better mood now.

Kimi tries to apologize to the guard. In a very terse voice, he tells her as politely as he can to get out of his sight. 

The group heads back to the inn. When they reach it, people are still stirred up over what happened at the town gates. Townsfolk inside are shouting, arguing with each other, trying to figure out what they can do. Some still want to go to the castle and demand an audience with the King. Others are calling these people fools, and say they’ll be beheaded for treason if they try something like that.

The owner is relieved to see the group. She asks them for help, asking if they can please calm down the crowd. 

Kaasha knows exactly what to do. She grabs a chair and starts smashing it on the ground. If she intended it to make people stop shouting, it doesn’t have the desired effect. At all. 

Kimi gives a single loud whistle to get people’s attention. Once the attention is on her, she and Gado start playing instruments. They begin to play music, going at it like a couple of bardic pros- especially Gado, who really gets into it. After a while, people begin to settle down. Some begrudgingly, while others seem glad to have the arguing done with for now. 

Kaasha discreetly tries to clean up the chair. This is the second chair she’s broken now. The tavern owner is definitely keeping tab. 

Once the angry crowd is distracted and soothed by the music, the tavern owner takes a deep breath to try and calm herself. Dakon asks if this is a regular occurence. She says that unfortunately, this isn’t the first time this has happened. A group of travelers was the first group to go into the temple, and they got their asses handed to them. They’ve been sending soldiers to try and solve the monster problem, but so far, nothing seems to be working. 

Yura and Janai go upstairs to check on Goaty. Another blanket was put over the skeleton arm, which is still crawling around on the floor by the bed it’s tied to. Goaty is still on his pillow, and thanks to the tavern owner’s son, he now has some veggies to munch on. Yura, not happy he was in the room, checks to see if anything is missing. Everything is right where it should be. 

Back downstairs, Yura wonders aloud to Janai about using the tavern owner’s son as a distraction to get into the castle. The rest of the group tries to figure out which of the temples could be causing such trouble. Kimi and Gado, while they may know of temples around the castle, have no idea what one would be causing so many monsters to appear.

As they talk, Pleco makes his way around the tavern, trying to ask questions to some of the other patrons. They recognize him from earlier, since it’s kind of hard to forget a giant Zora introducing himself happily to everyone he meets. But he does eventually learn that the temple, whichever one it might be, is somewhere to the west of the castle. 

Pleco happily takes this news back to his friends. As he does, Bryn’s fairy Lark remembers that, long ago, there was a temple near Hyrule where an evil being was sealed away. However, since it was so long ago, he doesn’t actually know where it is. 

They discuss what they should do. As much as sneaking into the castle to speak to the King sounds like a good idea, they eventually decide that’s probably not the best idea. However, they do think it might be a good idea to get information. And what’s the best way to do that? By breaking into a hospital to ask one of the returning royal guards what he saw, and where the temple is. 

They decide to ask the innkeeper where the hospital is. And they finally ask her what her name is. Her name is Anya, and her son is named Tino. Unfortunately for the group, the royal guards are being treated at the castle. 

The plan is ruined, much to Janai’s joy. 

Realizing it might not be a good idea to talk about plans to break into the castle in the middle of a crowd, the group heads upstairs to discuss amongst themselves and figure out what to do. They head into the room with Goaty and the skeleton hand. Janai flops down onto one of the beds, being careful to not lie on the bed where he put the chu jelly. Dakon lies on the floor and watches the hand as it crawls around. 

Pleco and Bryn get an idea. They decide to ask Anya about the initial group of travelers that visited the temple. According to Anya, one of the travelers survived. Anya doesn’t know exactly what happened, but that traveler probably wouldn’t be treated in the castle. Instead, they would probably be at one of the hospitals in town. There are two main hospitals: one hospital for physical injuries, and another hospital that specializes in magical injuries. 

Pleco is very calm and collected as Anya is talking. But as soon as she’s finished, he thanks her, and then runs up the stairs and almost breaks down the door in his excitement to tell the others what they found out. 

Goaty is so shocked he faints. Pleco is relieved that Goaty to know is only taking a nap, and isn’t dead. 

Now that there’s an opportunity to get information without having to sneak into the castle, Janai is disappointed again. Sorry, Janai. Maybe someday you can sneak your way into the castle. 

The group have started to refer the two hospitals as the Magic Hospital and the Stabbing Hospital. Since they don’t know which hospital the traveler is being kept at, they decide to split up in order to have a better shot at finding him. Pleco, Janai, Bryn and Dakon will go to the Stabbing hospital. Gado, Xaphyr, Kaasha, Yura and Kimi will go to the Magical hospital. 

As they’re leaving, Tino runs up to Pleco and starts tugging on his hand. Pleco kneels down so he’s closer to the smol’s height. Tino asks if he can play with the half dead goat. Pleco smiles and agrees, as long as Tino promises to take care of him. 

With a smile almost as big as Pleco’s, Tino promises to take great care of him, and runs up the stairs to play with Goaty. Once he’s out of sight, the group head out into the streets of Castle Town. 

Time to infiltrate some hospitals. 


	5. We (Try To) Break Into Some Hospitals Oh God What’s Wrong With Us

The problem with deciding to break into a hospital without first knowing where you’re heading is a problem the group faced quickly after they left the Golden Cucco. 

They were so excited to break into some hospitals, they completely forgot to ask for directions. Dakon suggests trying to find a guard. But Pleco has a better idea. 

“Dakon!”

“Yes, Pleco?”

“You should stab Janai!”

The group turns to stare at Pleco, while Janai sputters in anger. 

“Think about it,” Pleco says, “If someone gets stabbed, then they get taken to the stabbing hospital!”

“Or,” suggests Dakon, again “We could try yelling for a guard?”

“Great idea!” Pleco responds “We can stab a guard!”

“I could stab Dakon?” Janai volunteers.

Xaphyr is looking back and forth between everyone, wondering what the hell he’s gotten himself into. 

Fortunately for everyone, Bryn managed to spot some guards from atop Dakon’s shoulders. “Don’t stab anyone, there’s guards right there.”

Relieved that nobody has to get stabbed, Dakon heads over to the guards. They’re a bit startled by his appearance, but they’re more startled by the words that come out of his mouth: “Do you know where the stabbing hospital is?”

The guards exchange a worried look. “I- has someone been stabbed?”

Pleco appears behind Dakon, showing off an uncharacteristically cold expression. “ _ There will be if you don’t tell us _ .”

The guards, shaken by the tall Zora, quickly tell them. Pleco smiles. To the guards, it looks like he’s baring his teeth at them. They gladly give them the location of the magic hospital as well. The poor guards are very scared. 

The party regroups once more to go over the plans: get into the hospitals, talk to the traveler, and get out with whatever information they can get. And with that, they split up. 

The first group, comprised of Pleco, Janai, Bryn and Dakon head for the stabbing hospital. The streets are still fairly crowded, and it’s easy to pick out snippets of gossip about the riot earlier. There are a few dogs wandering around. Pleco thinks they look like hornless goats, and stops many times to pet them. Almost every dog in town is petted. Pleco is happy. 

They manage to follow the guard’s directions somehow, and it doesn’t take long until they make it to the stabbing hospital, despite Pleco’s distracted dog-petting. The hospital is easy to identify, as it has a pretty clear sign out front that identifies it. 

The group walks inside. They’re an odd looking group, and since they don’t appear to have anyone among them who needs medical attention, most of the staff ignores them. Dakon tries to approach a nurse who is clearly pretending to be busy. He tries to ask them about the last surviving member of the travelers. The nurse is intimidated by his size, as well as suspicious of his questions. Poor Dakon and Xaphyr have to deal with so much Twili racism. 

“Please,” says Dakon “We’re just trying to find more information about the temple.”

The nurse narrows her gaze at the group. “I’m afraid I can’t give out information to just anyone who walks in from the street. Unless you have some sort of family relation to one of our patients, I’m not allowed to give out any information. There’s rules about this, you know.”

“I’m his family,” Says Pleco. 

The nurse is extremely skeptical. “Oh? How are you related to him?”

“He’s my son.”

“...Really.”

“Yes, he’s my lost son!”

Considering Pleco is basically just a giant child, and a fish, the nurse is even more skeptical. She puts on a tight smile and says, “Really? Well, this shouldn’t be a problem. What’s his name?”

There’s a long, awkward pause. It’s clear Pleco hasn’t thought this far ahead.

“N… Nemo?”

The traveler’s name isn’t Nemo. 

The nurse is beginning to wish someone else would take over for her, but everyone else in the room has distanced themselves from the odd group. They want nothing to do with these troublemakers. 

Dakon tries to argue with the nurse, saying she’s being very unprofessional and they need to speak with the traveler. He asks to see her manager, and she gladly agrees, using this as an opportunity to get away from this odd group. 

Once she’s gone, they try to discuss how they’re going to find the traveler. The group thinks Janai should sneak into the rooms one by one and shake down each of the patients to ask if they’ve been to the temple. They’re bound to find their man that way!

While the rest of the group is trying to come up with an idea, beating up some of the patients in order to get more information being among them, Bryn looks around to find someone who’s not ignoring them too hard. She spots a different nurse walking by who looks nice, and might be able to give them some more info. 

Bryn walks over to the nurse and tugs on her pant leg to get her attention. “Excuse me, miss. I was wondering if you could help me?”

The nurse, who had seen the antics of the group before, is unsure if she should talk to her. But Bryn is too dang adorable to ignore.

“Yes? What can I help you with?”

“I’m writing a school report on the adventurers who went into the temple. I was wondering if I could get an interview with the one who came back? Please?”

The nurse is skeptical, despite Bryn’s charms. “A school report? What school do you go to?”

“Oh, you know,” Bryn replies. “The school.”

The nurse glances around warily. “Listen. I really don’t think I should say anything…”

“Please?” Bryn uses her adorable face to her advantage. It’s super effective. 

The nurse sighs. After glancing around, she leans down to talk quietly to Bryn. “Listen. I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else. Okay?”

Bryn nods solemnly. “I promise.”

The nurse smiles, relieved. “Okay. Well, the adventurer did come here. They had many cuts and burns, and they were unconscious for a long time. They’re awake now. They’re not missing any limbs, but it’s probably not a good idea for them to speak to anyone right now. That’s all I can tell you.”

Bryn gives a wide smile. “Thank you!”

The nurse smiles back. “Just remember, please don’t tell anyone else this information.”

Bryn promises she won’t. As soon as the nurse leaves, she heads back to the group to spill the secrets. 

Once she’s finished spilling the secrets the nurse had given her, the original nurse comes back with her manager. Dakon tries to get more information from the manager, but he’s not nearly as cute as Bryn, and his charms don’t work. Not only that, nobody believes Pleco is the father. The manager asks the group to leave. Since they already have some information, Dakon decides to pick up Bryn, put her on his shoulders, and they leave the hospital after bidding the manager goodbye. 

They’re going to break in. They’re definitely going to break in, there’s no question. As soon as they’re outside, they start discussing how they’re going to try and break in. They discuss stealing the patient list, just so they can have an idea of the adventurer’s name and what kind of injuries they have. 

Janai is confident he can do it, and knows his sticky fingers can grab the patient list sitting on the desk up front. However, he knows he’ll need a distraction. 

Dakon tries to think of a good way to distract people. Pleco, on the other hand, knows just what to do. 

Pleco grabs a nearby chair and smashes it against the ground, yelling the he wants to see his son. This doesn’t do much except attract the attention of people on the street. Pleco decides to take this rampage inside.

Pleco stops smashing the chair outside, walks inside, and resumes smashing the chair inside the hospital, all while shouting about how he wants to see his son. 

Meanwhile, Janai is certain he can snatch the papers off the desk without being noticed, especially since Pleco is causing such a frightening distraction. He tries to sneak behind the counter, but is immediately noticed by the head nurse. Rather than leave quietly, Janai grabs a handful of papers. He’s not sure what the papers are, but he grabs them and bolts out of the hospital. When Pleco looks up, he’s gone. 

Seeing Janai is gone, Pleco drops the chair, apologizes, and tries to leave. The doctors block off his exit, concerned about his well being. The last thing Pleco wants is to be held up in a hospital, even if the doctors are trying to be calming, saying “It’s okay, nobody here wants to hurt you.”

Pleco doesn’t just runs. He bolts. A few doctors get knocked over, and he does an incredible flying leap over the last pair of doctors in his way. He runs, following behind Janai, Dakon, and Bryn. 

They run all the way back to the Golden Cucco with a crumpled handful of papers. They’ve just wrecked the day for the poor staff of the stabbing hospital. 

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the other half of the party are discussing how they’re going to get into the magic hospital. Gado suggests playing music for the patients, confident that will cheer them up. Kaasha is quick to shoot down his idea, saying there’s no way his music will be allowed in a hospital. 

“If that’s the case, then I’m going to pretend to be cursed!”

“...What?”

“This is a magical hospital! They have to help with magical problems! So if I pretend to be cursed, they’ll have to help!”

Gado begins drumming furiously as they approach the hospital. Kaasha asks if she should attack him so the magical injury is real. 

They enter the magical hospital, which, like the stabbing hospital, has a sign out front indicating what it is. As soon as they enter, all eyes are on Gado as he drums away. Several doctors rush to the front of the building to see what’s making all this noise. 

“I can’t stop! I’ve been hexed!” Says Gado as he keeps drumming. 

The doctors aren’t buying it. One of the doctors approaches him and places a hand on his head. “There. You’re cured.” She knows he was faking it. “Now, please leave.”

Yura isn’t going to be dissuaded so easily. Overcome with a sudden desire to perform, Yura dramatically faints, pretending to need medical attention. However, he performance isn’t well received by the doctors. It’s pretty obvious she faked the fall. Rather than helping her, the doctor calls for some guards to try and get these crazy people out of the hospital and stop disturbing their work. 

Kaasha casts a sleep spell on Yura so her performance is real. One of the doctors sees this and grabs Kaasha’s wrist, glaring at her. Kaasha isn’t intimidated. Gado tries to diffuse the situation, but Kaasha manages to wriggle out of the doctor’s grasp, and starts to run towards the exit. She laughs loudly, as if pretending to be an evil witch and hoping the doctors will follow her and give the rest of the group time to get the information they need. She ends up tripping and faceplanting at the entrance. 

The doctors are getting sick of this. While Kaasha is caught by the entrance by some guards, one of the doctors slaps Yura awake.

After being scolded, the group is led outside. The guards are seriously considering locking them up for disturbing the peace. 

“I was trying to see my boyfriend!” Everyone is stunned that the voice belongs to Yura, of all people. “I need to see him, even though he’s upset with me and doesn’t want to see me.”

“I can see why,” mutters one of the guards. 

Yura glares at him. The guard isn’t intimidated in the slightest. 

Kaasha is deeply ashamed of what they’ve been doing, and wonders if they’re going to go to jail over this.

Fortunately, Kimi, the group mom, is able to apologize properly. She is the only one sensible enough to convince the guards that this won’t happen again, and they should be let go. The guards, though hesitant, agree on the premise that the group won’t be coming back to the magical hospital. 

The group doesn’t try to argue, and head back to the Golden Cucco. 

 

Both groups meet up in front of the inn around the same time, and Pleco gives the other group a big wave while smiling. Kaasha looks so disappointed. The stabbing group asks how it went over at the magical hospital. Yura doesn’t want to talk about it. 

Now that they’re all together, they’re able to take a look at the papers Janai grabbed from the stabbing hospital. They’re glad to know that the adventurer is at the stabbing hospital, because now, they have an idea of where he is. However, when Yura looks down at the papers Janai grabbed, she makes a startling discovery. Even though managed to grab one of the papers from the patient list, it’s not a paper that has any information on the adventurer. So now, all they have to go on is that the adventurer is in the stabbing hospital, he was in a coma, he has cuts and burns, and his name isn’t Nemo. 

They discuss trying to sneak into the hospital, but with how badly their experiences went, neither group thinks it’s such a hot idea. Besides, the adventurer might get scared if a bunch of strangers break into his room in the middle of the night. Unless they send in Bryn with her adorable face. 

Janai suggests someone should sneak into the castle. That way, the guards will be distracted with whoever’s in the castle, and nobody will be paying attention to anyone sneaking into the hospital. 

However, for all their talk, they know the day is waning and they’re all exhausted from the day’s excitement. They decide to rest for the night before they all get arrested. 

They sit down for a while in the main dining area. Janai whispers a swear word softly under his breath. Kaasha gasps, puts her hands over Bryn’s ears, and stares Janai down. Bryn repeats the swear word with a smile. Kaasha beats up Pleco. 

A few of the party members decide to head to bed. Dakon decides to stay downstairs for an hour or two, keeping an eye out for rowdy customers. However, even though there was nearly a riot in the streets earlier, the inside of the tavern is calm, and the customers aren’t the rowdy type. Bryn tries to stay awake with Dakon, but she falls asleep fairly quickly. 

Dakon carries the sleeping Bryn upstairs and starts to put her in a bed, when he notices something strange. There’s chu jelly spread under the sheets. Unsure why someone would try to play a mean prank on poor little Bryn, Dakon tucks her into a different bed. 

When Pleco goes into his room, he sees Tino, the innkeeper’s son, sleeping next to a sleepy Goaty. Pleco smiles, kneels down, and pats them both. 

Kaasha remains downstairs, head in her hands. She’s having a crisis. It’s going to be a long night for her, while the rest of the party falls asleep upstairs. 

At some point in the night, Yura wakes up. She remains still, but watches as Anya walks into the room and quietly picks up Tino. He remains asleep, but Goaty is mildly startled, and makes a curious noise as his friend is picked up. Anya gives Goaty a pat before standing and leaving, taking Tino off to his bed. 

 

When morning comes, Kimi is the first one awake. The early bird gets the worm, or so they say. She is a morning person, despite most of the party wanting to sleep in. Pleco wakes, and goes to pet Goaty. He pets his goat, which wakes up with a quiet bleat. Pleco picks up his loyal companion and takes him downstairs. After finding a place to sit, Pleco and his guard goat keep an eye on the other customers. There aren’t many down there, and those that are around aren’t fully awake. Most are tired, their bleary eyes unfocused and uncaring of the curious Zora and his pet goat. 

Yura and Janai are the next ones to make their way downstairs. Anya welcomes them downstairs, and Yura coldly asks if there’s been any news of the announcement from the King yet. Anya shakes her head and says no, there’s been no news yet. As she’s talking, Yura notices that Anya isn’t Hylian, like she’d first thought. Anya seems to be part Gerudo, and isn’t fully Hylian. After realizing this, Yura likes Anya slightly more. 

Back upstairs, Bryn’s fairy is trying to wake her up, but the sleepy Kokiri wants to sleep in. Dakon tries to help waker her up as well, and it somewhat works. He leads the sleepy Kokiri downstairs by the hand. Kaasha eventually wakes up and drags herself out of bed, forcing herself downstairs. She feels dead inside. 

Everyone in the group eventually wakes up, and they all gather downstairs at a large table to have some breakfast. Tino sits with them, taking a seat next to Pleco. Pleco is happy to have a little friend next to him. Before breakfast is served, Tino tells Pleco that Goaty ate one of his mom’s skirts. Pleco, wide-eyed with wonder, explains that he didn’t know clothes could be eaten, and he wants to try now. With a wide smile, Tino says he’ll grab another skirt so Pleco can eat it. He’s not subtle about it as he scampers off his seat and runs upstairs. Everyone except Janai and Kaasha notice the exchange. 

It doesn’t take long before Tino rushes back downstairs, one of his mother’s skirts not-so-hidden in his grasp. Taking his seat next to Pleco, he psses the garment over to his fishy friend. Pleco takes it and tries to chomp on it, but Dakon snatches it out of Pleco’s grasp before Pleco can try and eat it. Pleco is disappointed, yet determined to try and eat something out of the ordinary. 

Anya comes back with some breakfast, wondering what the heck is going on and why the group is holding one of her skirts aloft. The group tries to come up with a quick excuse, and say it just fell out of the sky. No idea why, it just fell out of the air. Anya doesn’t believe them, but doesn’t pry. Instead, she takes her petticoat, shaking her head. 

Tino leans close to Pleco and promises he’ll get him another one to try and eat. 

Bryn ends up asking Tino about school. If she’s going to pretend to be a child, she might as well learn a bit about the schools around here. Tino says he’s five years old, and doesn’t go to school yet. However, he knows something important about the school: it’s green. He’s excited to go there someday, even if he doesn’t go there yet. 

Kaasha asks if Anya has started teaching him yet. And by teaching, she means teaching him how to fight. Tino shakes his head, saying his mom hasn’t taught him how to fight. 

Pleco says it’s easy to learn to fight on your own. All you have to do is go into a back alley and get into some fights. It’s how he learned, and look at what a great fighter he is!

Kaasha puts Pleco in a chokehold. 

Over breakfast, the group decides what their next plan of attack should be. There’s still been no word from the King, and they’re still curious to know more about the temples in the area. They’re also still wary of breaking into any hospitals again, given what happened yesterday. So instead, they decide to try and find a library. They’re sure a large place such as Castle Town has a library or two, and there’s bound to be information on temples written in those pages somewhere. 

And so, it’s decided. They’ll try to go to the library, rather than break into another place. Tino asks if he can come, and Pleco is quick to say he can. Tino runs to ask Anya if he’s allowed to go. Anya eyes the group, considering whether it’s a good idea to let them take her son or not. Eventually, due to Tino’s precious face and pleading, she eventually relents. 

“Okay,” she finally says, “But you’re not taking Goaty.”

“Aw, why not?”

“Because goats like to eat books. He might try to eat the pages of the books in the library.”

Pleco is intrigued. “You can eat books, too?”

Hearing this, several group members facepalm, while others try to convince him that goats can eat weird things, but goats aren’t people. He shouldn’t eat weird things. 

“Goats eat rocks,” says Yura. “You can’t eat rocks.”

“I eat rocks,” Gado comments. 

Pleco now wonders about eating rocks. 

Kaasha is quick to come up with an excuse, saying books are laced with poison, especially library books. Janai adds that books are made of trees, and are basically vegetables. After hearing this, Pleco decides it might not be a good idea to try and eat books. Skirts and rocks are still on the menu, though. 

Gado decides to stay behind at the inn, to watch over Goaty and make sure he doesn’t eat any poisonous books. Tino is excited to be able to go with his new friends to a library. Everyone is sure this will be a wonderful learning experience for the child, and there’s no possible way this could go wrong. Anya thanks them for looking after her son, but before they leave, she makes Pleco promise to not take Tino into any back alleys. 

Before they leave, Tino tugs on Pleco’s hand and gestures for him to kneel down. Pleco does. Tino points at Pleco’s head, and the Zora smiles. Pleco helps Tino onto his shoulders, and Tino beams as he gets to ride his tall friend. 

Once they’re outside (Pleco has to duck through the doorway to make sure Tino doesn’t hit his head) Dakon looks around for any guards who can give them directions. It doesn’t take long for his Twili eyes to spot the two guards they’d seen the day before- the ones Pleco scared the pants off of. 

As soon as the guards see them, they turn around and try to speed-walk away. Dakon catches up to them easily, cheerfully asking them if they know where the library is. 

The guards give an awkward reply, saying the group should really get a map instead of asking the guards. Behind Dakon, they can see Pleco glaring at them with a smiling child on his shoulders. 

The guards tell Dakon where they can find the library. Dakon thanks them, and as soon as the guards leave, Pleco is back to his normal smiling self. 

It doesn’t take long for the group to reach the library. It’s a large building with several stories. And as they enter, they see the first floor seems relatively devoid of people. And as they enter, they realize there’s not quite as many books as they would’ve thought. Still, most of the group is glad Goaty isn’t here with them. 

Pleco spots a man moving between the bookshelves. With Tino still on his shoulders, he walks over and pokes the man on his shoulder as he’s shelving some books. The man, presumably the head librarian, jumps at the touch and is startled by the sight of a large Zora with a small child on his shoulders. 

“Do you have any books about killer temples killing stuff?”

The librarian is, understandably, unsettled by this odd request. Kaasha is able to better explain the situation. They’re looking for information on the temple that’s been taking down soldiers and adventurers alike. 

The librarian leads the group to a section of older books. “Here,” he says “These books have information on temples around the castle, you should be able to find what you need.” Once he’s sure the group is in the right place, he scurries away.

Pleco takes a book off the shelf. Tino pats his head. “Think you can eat it?”

Pleco is sure he can. 

The impressionable Zora tries to bite the book. Seeing this, Dakon tries to reach out and snatch the book away from Pleco. Pleck jerks his hand away- only for Kaasha to grab the book right out of his grasp. No eating books for poor Pleco. 

However, his desire to eat something strange only grows  _ stronger _ . 

Kaasha hands the book over to Bryn, since she can read ancient Hylian. Bryn is able to read a passage that sounds like it fits the bill of the temple they’re looking for. 

One of the chapters in the book details an ancient evil that was sealed away in a temple close to the castle. According to the book, a sorcerer was sealed there. The seal had weakened once before, and had to be resealed away. The temple was since renovated. 

This sounds like the temple they’re looking for. Unfortunately, the chapter neglects to mention where the temple is. 

Bryn relays this information to the group. Upon hearing it was a sorcerer that was sealed away, Pleco casts an uneasy glance in Kaasha’s direction. Kaasha is confused. 

Yura, after browsing around, checks out another book. It seemed to be a journal from an archaeologist. Apparently, in the temple he was in, he detailed traps meant to kill, rather than disable. There are entries about rolling boulders, and pits filled with snakes. Also redeads. The author’s name is Indiana Jones. 

Dakon gets distracted from their main mission for a few moments, and glances around for books on Twili. He doesn’t find anything. 

As the rest of the group is looking for books, Pleco tries to subtly reach for a book on one of the shelves. Basically everyone in the group notices. He flips through the book, looking for a picture that looks tasty. Once he flipped to a page with an intricate picture on it, he holds the book up for Tino to see. 

“Do you think this would taste good?”

Tino crinkles his nose. “I don’t think so. It smells gross.”

Dakon reaches to try and grab the book, but Pleco yanks it out of his way again. Yura and Kaasha try to grab onto the book, but Pleco’s grip on the book is so tight he barely notices there’s anyone grabbing the book.

Frustrated with her friend trying to eat inedible things, Yura decides to show Pleco that ink doesn’t taste good. She goes over the librarian and, since he’s a Hylian, rudely asks for some ink. He’s worried, and asks that they don’t write in the books. But eventually, he procures a small vial of ink. 

Yura takes the ink over to Pleco and hands it to him. “See? This stuff is gross. You can’t drink this stuff.”

Pleco holds it up for Tino to sniff and asks, “Would you drink this stuff?” 

Once again, Tino makes a face and shakes his head. “I wouldn’t.” Good. tino shouldn’t. 

Pleco shouldn’t drink it, either. However, his desire to eat something weird has grown to the point where he won’t settle for less. And, much to everyone’s shock and horror, he takes a swig of the ink. 

The reaction is immediate. The Zora gags on the ink, making a face and complaining how nasty that tasted. 

“...Pleco?” says Kaasha. 

“Bleh. Yes?”

“You remember when I said books were laced with poison?”

“...Yeah?”

“That was the poison.”

A look of horror crosses the faces of both Pleco and Tino. 

“Am I going to die??”

“Is he going to die???”

Tino holds onto Pleco’s head, scared for his friend. Pleco feels nauseous and holds his stomach. Maybe that wasn’t the best idea. 

Yura, in the midst of this crisis, has a wonderful idea. “ _ Maybe he needs to go to a hospital _ ??”

Upon hearing his friend needs to go to the hospital, Tino bursts out sobbing. Pleco pats Tino’s head while Tino clings to his tall friend. At this point, it’s unclear who is comforting who. Dakon thinks that even though Pleco looks fine at the moment, Kaasha wasn’t wrong about that ink being poisoned. Tino is definitely going to have some lasting mental scars. Hopefully this doesn’t impact his future love of reading. But it probably will. Poor kid. 

Still, they need to get Pleco some help. And the stabbing hospital is their best bet. Hopefully they don’t get kicked out as soon as they walk in. 

Janai asks if they should bring Tino. He’s still holding tightly to Pleco, crying. “Anya told us to make sure he doesn’t get hurt, she didn’t say anything about taking him to the hospital.”

They decide that Janai should take traumatized Tino back to Anya. After all, he was the one who stole the papers from the hospital, they might not appreciate seeing him there. Bryn and Dakon decide no to go to the hospital, and instead, decide to look around for a Goddess statue. Pleco, Yura, and Kaasha go to the stabbing hospital. 

It doesn’t take long for Dakon and Bryn to find a temple in Castle Town. It’s a non-stabby non-monster temple, built for worshipping the Goddess Hylia. Bryn is there to look for fairies. Upon entering, although there are few people, there aren’t any fairies. Dakon is intrigued by the architecture of the place, but Bryn is disappointed. The more she thinks about it, the more she realizes that fairies probably wouldn’t want to congregate in the middle of a large city. She leaves, disappointed, without even paying respect to the goddess. Blasphemy. She and Dakon both head back to the Golden Cucco. 

Meanwhile, as Dakon and Bryn are leaving the temple, Pleco, Yura, and Kaasha are just making it to the stabbing hospital. As soon as they walk in, the staff recognizes Pleco. A few of them stand up and march over, telling them to leave, they don’t want a repeat of what happened yesterday. 

Kaasha and Yura are quick to explain what happened. “He drank ink,” says Yura. “I handed it to him, and I didn’t know he was going to drink it, but he did and now he needs help.”

As soon as the doctors realize they have an actual emergency on their hands, they get serious. They brink Pleco into a treatment room. Pleco is nervous, and from the frantic way people are acting, it’s really not making him feel any better. He wishes Tino was there to help him feel better. 

“How long ago did he drink the ink?” Asks one of the doctors as he gathers supplies. 

“About fifteen minutes, I think,” Replies Yura. 

“Good,” the doctor says, “That means there’s still time.”

“ _ Time for what?? _ ” There’s no hiding the panicked horror in Pleco’s voice. 

The doctor brings over a bucket for Pleco. Along with the bucket, he brings over a foul-smelling mixture, and tells Pleco to drink it. As much as Pleco wants to turn his nose up at the drink, especially since he doesn’t know what the drink is supposed to do, he knows he has to drink it anyway.

He drinks the mixture. It tastes disgusting, and he can feel it settle in his stomach as the bitter taste lingers in his mouth. But nothing else happens. His stomach is too strong. The doctor frowns and calls over a nurse, who brings in another bottle of the mixture. Looking a bit green around the gills, Pleco drinks the second bottle. 

This time, Pleco understands what the mixture was supposed to do. The bucket is filled, and the ink is out of poor Pleco’s system. Along with his breakfast. 

Kaasha feels sorry for Pleco for the first time in her life. 

Subtly, Yura slides over to the doctor as he carries out the bucket and hands it to a waiting nurse. “Are you sure he doesn’t need to be hospitalized?”

The doctor gives an exasperated sigh. “No, that won’t be necessary.”

As much as Yura would love to try and find the adventurer, she and Kaasha are both traumatized by what happened the last time they tried to break into a hospital. So rather than do anything rash, they decide to leave peacefully. 

The doctor gives a wary warning to Pleco, reminding him that ink isn’t something he should go out of his way to drink. 

Pleco nods, and apologizes for breaking the chair and causing a scene the other day. The doctor gives a tired smile. 

The group heads back to the Golden Cucco. They make it at about the same time Dakon and Bryn arrive. But before they even get in the door, Anya is at the front entrance, her arms crossed and watching the group with an extremely stern look. The whole group feels like they’re about to be grounded for life. 

“What happened?” Anya asks sternly, watching Pleco. “I’ve been trying to get an answer out of Tino, but all he’s been talking about are evil books and poisons. What happened??”

Pleco tries to come up with a good cover story. It’s not very good. “There was an assassin! We were in the library, and suddenly there was an assassin trying to poison me!”

Anya looks at the group with horror. There’s no way she’s ever letting Tino out of her sight. 

“There was no assassin,” Kaasha interjects. “Pleco is an idiot and drank some ink, so we had to drag him to a hospital.”

The expression of horror begins to fade, and instead, Anya becomes fussy with worry. She goes up to Pleco and pats his face. “Why did you drink ink??”

“Yura gave it to me.”

Anya shoots a look at Yura. Yura holds up her hands. “Hey, I thought he was just going to put a drop on his tongue so he could get a taste, not chug the whole bottle!”

Anya takes a deep sigh and turns her attention back to Pleco. “Listen. You can’t go around eating things that aren’t food. They might be inedible, or they might be poison. Understand?”

Pleco nods. 

Anya gives the rest of the group a death-stare. Kaasha has a flashback of her own mother, and is intimidated by Anya’s stern look. 

The group gets the feeling they’re not allowed to babysit Tino anymore. 

They start to head up the front steps of the Golden Cucco, still feeling sheepish over what happened when someone pushes past and rushes inside. It’s a man saying people are gathering at the plaza, because the King is about to deliver his message!

Suddenly in serious mode, the adventurers follow the crowd and race to the plaza, intent on getting as close as they can to hear the announcement. They manage to push a fair way into the crowd, and get up pretty close to the plaza before people are too packed to get any closer. Guards hold the rest of the populace back, not wanting any random person to get too close to the King. 

The royal carriage comes into view. It stops in the plaza, and an old man gets out. He is the King of Hyrule, and while he appears old and frail, there’s a quiet dignity about him that hushes the people without him having to say anything.

Another man gets out of the carriage as well. He is a younger man with orange hair and piercing blue eyes. He scans the crowd, apparently unimpressed, as he turns up his nose at those who have gathered here. He is well known among Hyrule. He is Prince Daltus the Fifth. 

The King steps forward, his face betraying his worry. His son stands close behind, silent as he listens to his father speak. 

The King’s voice carries out over the crowd, nobody speaking as their King informs them on why he’s called them all here. He explains that he he here to explain everything to them. He says that, as many people know, there was a group of adventurers that trekked into a temple near the castle. Only one of them survived. Guards from the castle went to investigate, and many of them perished as well. The situation is becoming dire. The King knows better than to send unequipped people to their deaths. He is going to select a group of adventurers, along with the Prince, to go to the temple, figure out what’s causing the trouble inside, and put an end to it.

Based on his words alone, some members of the crowd begin to mutter amongst themselves. Some seem angry, while others seem glad to know the Prince is going along. Now that more people are talking, the Prince steps forward to speak his piece. 

When he speaks, his voice is angry, and carries more than just a hint of arrogance. He explains that he won’t be taking just any random adventurers along with him. There will be trials, he says, to determine the select group that will accompany him into the temple. He refuses to have anyone who will just get in his way. 

Voices begin to rise up from the crowd, asking when the trials will be held. Among those voices, Dakon’s rises up, asking Daltus what  _ his _ qualifications are. Everyone quiets down at the question, and the smiles down at Daltus, condescending and contemplating the odd race of creature before him. 

“I am Prince Daltus the Fifth, general of the Royal Army, and it is my duty to protect this Kingdom. I trust that suffices as adequate qualifications.”

As the crowd is silent, Pleco speaks up. “Is there going to be a reward?” 

Daltus frowns at Pleco, but the King steps forward and smiles. “Yes. There will be considerable compensation for your efforts. However, I must warn you, do not sign up for this simply because you desire a reward. This task is a dangerous one, and I apologize for putting your lives on the line for this. Please, only do this if you feel qualified for the task at hand, not because you desire a monetary reward.”

From the crowd, Bryn sticks her tongue out at Daltus. A look of annoyance crosses his face, and he grabs his sword hilt, though he doesn’t draw it. 

There are tables for people to sign up for the trials. However, after hearing everything that’s expected of them, many groups no longer feel compelled to sign up. Not only because the situation seems so dire, but also because nobody wants to deal with the Prince. The King regards those who step forward with a serious gaze. 

Janai considers throwing some pebbles at Daltus. However, they’re too far away to hit him. 

Dakon and Pleco both push through the crowd, and are two of the first people to put their names down. The rest of the group follows suit. A few of the party members glare at the Prince as they write their names down, and he snorts when Bryn signs up. Bryn decides to make it her goal to try and fight the Prince. 

Glancing around, Pleco is able to see that, while many people decided to leave and not sign up, there are still a few smaller groups that stayed to sign up. Of all the groups, though, their group is the largest. 

The Prince attempts to look civil as he addresses the remaining crowd, once everyone who wanted to sign up has written their names down. They will meet here tomorrow for more information regarding the trials. 

Pleco pipes up and asks, “You said there was a reward. How much is it?”

“You will know tomorrow.”

And with that, the Prince turns on his heel and heads back to the carriage. The King mumbles something under his breath. He probably said something about his son making a scene due to a child sticking their tongue at him. But after thanking those who remained, he turns as well and heads for the carriage. 

After the carriage is gone, a few people in the crowd begin to argue. They wanted answers, or they wanted to do the trials right away, or any reason to begin arguing. Pleco is tempted to try and start another riot- but he’s stopped when he realizes how hungry he is. It’s lunchtime, and thanks to the ink incident, he doesn’t have any food in his stomach. 

Soon, people begin to wander away from the plaza, whether because they’re hungry or because the fight has left them. The group leaves as well and begins heading for the Golden Cucco. 

Time to prepare for tomorrow. 


	6. We Punch Each Other In The Face For Fun

By the time everyone returns to the Golden Cucco, Anya is standing by the table, setting plates and silverware for lunch. She checks over the returning adventurers, asking what the announcement was all about. As people begin to take their places at the table, they begin discussing the prince, and what a jerk he seems to be. 

“Well,” offers Janai, “If we manage to beat his tests, maybe that’ll mean we can beat him.”

Everyone seems to agree with this idea. 

Anya, however, seems more surprised than anything. With a smile, she says, “I know the Prince can be a bit brash. But I’m surprised to know he was there. He isn’t usually all that sociable…”

Nobody is surprised by this. 

As Pleco sits down, his stomach rumbles. His breakfast had been spoiled when he went to the hospital, and seeing as his stomach was now empty, he’s a very hungry shark boy. 

“Do you have any food?”

Anya gives him a smile. “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t?”

Pleco really, truly, sincerely hopes she does. “Please? Ink isn’t nearly as tasty as I thought.”

“Or that vinegar stuff they gave you at the hospital,” chimes in Janai. 

Anya laughs and waves her hand. “Don’t worry, I have food. I’ll bring it out in just a moment.” As she turns, she gives the eye to Yura, who ducks her head down. She’s still ashamed about the ink incident. Kaasha, on the other hand, feels no such remorse. She thought it was a good learning experience for Pleco. 

There’s a pitter patter of little feet. Tino rushes into the room and hugs Pleco’s leg. Pleco hugs back, happy to see his little friend again. Tino isn’t crying, but he’s holding onto Pleco’s leg so tight, it’s clear he thought his big friend was in bad trouble. 

“Did you go to the hospital? Did they fix you??”

Pleco, smiling and hugging Tino back, says “Yep. They gave me some nasty stuff and made me throw it up.”

Tino makes a face. “Eww.”

Pleco nods. “Eww.”

“Don’t eat ink again, please?”

Pleco nods once more. “I won’t. That ink was nasty, and throwing up was no fun.”

Tino smiles a bit. “I’ve thrown up before. I know it’s no fun.”

Xaphyr decides to follow Anya to the kitchen, to help her prepare and bring out the food. Yura averts her gaze from Pleco, still ashamed about the part she played in the ink incident. With good reason. There’s no way Pleco is going to ever accept food from her again. 

Dakon wonders aloud, “I wonder what the trials will be?”

“Maybe we can punch the Prince in the face?” Offers Janai. 

“I wouldn’t mind that,” says Pleco. 

Seems that, even though they’ve only had one interaction with the Prince, it was enough to convince them all to hate him. 

“You know,” says Yura “It might be a good idea to start training for those trials.”

“I want to train too!” Says Tino excitedly.

Yura eyes the child. “How old are you?”

“I’m five!”

Yura shakes her head. “Sorry. You’re not old enough to start training.”

Tino looks sad for a moment, but Pleco is quick to speak up. “I think he’s old enough!” he offers. “I was about his age when I started learning how to fight!”

“Really?” Asks Yura. 

Pleco nods happily. “Of course! I come from a reef out in the ocean. Out there, when I was a kid, I’d sometimes wander into back alleys and have to fight off the people in them. It’s a great way to learn to fight!”

Everyone at the table gives Pleco an odd look. 

Anya and Xaphyr come back soon after with food. It has meat in it, much to the delight of Pleco. They start to dig in, but before they can get very far, Anya clears her throat. “I believe your friend has something he’d like to say.”

She steps aside, revealing a blushing Xaphyr. The group notes that, because Xaphyr is a Twili, he doesn’t blush red. Instead, his face is a bright shade of teal. “Oh! W-well, I, I just wanted to say that… Well, I think it would be better if I stayed here. At the inn. Helping Anya, part time. Because I’m- I’m not very adventurous, and I don’t think I would be very good at the trials, you see. I don’t- I’m not very familiar with this realm, and I think maybe, it would be better if I stayed here?”

Although the group is sad to learn they’re not going to have Xaphyr on their side during the trials, they’re all pretty understanding. Especially Kaasha. She thinks it’s very logical for him to stay behind, especially since he and Tino aren’t much different except in height. 

Xaphyr seems glad that nobody is mad at him for wanting to stay at the inn. With a quick thanks, he disappears back inside the kitchen to start washing some dishes. 

“Well,” says Yura, “I still think training is a good idea. Maybe we should try to fight each other?”

“I’d be up for that!” Pleco says happily.

“Hold on,” says Kaasha, “Where should we train? It’s not like we can go into the street and start hitting each other.”

“Back alleys!” Pleco offers helpfully. Nobody wants to take him up on that offer. 

Underneath the table, Goaty is happily eating the leftovers that fall to the ground. Pleco picks a piece of green out of his food and holds it down to Goaty. The little creature happily accepts. 

“You know,” says Kaasha, spotting the goat, “I think Goaty should stay here with Tino and Xaphyr.”

“No.” Pleco’s response was immediate. “He’s part of the team. He’s coming to the trials.”

“Well,” tries Kaasha, “He shouldn’t go to the trials, because he’s not going to the temple-”

“Yes he is,” interjects Pleco. 

Everybody is silent for a solid minute wondering how to tell Pleco that Goaty was going to die. 

“You shouldn’t bring him,” tries Janai, “Because the Prince… well, the Prince might eat him!”

Pleco’s expression shifts to one of horror. “What?”

Janai nods. “That’s right. I hear the Prince loves to eat goats. Right?”

He nudges Yura, who slaps his arm, before replying “Oh, yeah. Princes love eating goats.”

Pleco shoots a worried look at Goaty. Finally, although it seems to pain him to admit it, he agrees to let Goaty stay at the inn while they complete the trials. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief- though, they know they’re still going to have to talk him out of bringing Goaty to the temple. But they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it. 

Anya pats Pleco on the shoulder. “You made the right choice. Besides I think Goaty is happy helping with leftovers.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. He’s an excellent helper when it comes to getting rid of trash!”

As Anya walks away, Tino gives Pleco a look. Pleco grins. Tino leans in close and whispers, “Should I get another petticoat?”

Pleco nods. 

Yura notices. She gives Pleco a stern look, but doesn’t say anything. 

Tino runs up the stairs. Pleco pretends like he doesn’t know what’s going on, but Anya is watching, knowing exactly what’s going on. 

Rolling her eyes, Yura says, “You know, maybe the Prince doesn’t just want to test our fighting abilities. He’ll probably want to test our puzzle-solving skills, too.”

Kaasha nods. “So while we’re there, nobody should show goat-like traits like falling over when you get scared.”

Dakon grins and asks, “Are you talking about yourself?”

Kaasha gives him an offended glance. “Of course not!”

Dakon isn’t sure if he believes her or not. 

Around this time, Tino comes running back downstairs with  _ something _ stuffed under his shirt. As he takes a seat next to Pleco, he passes it under the table to his friend. Anya is more than a little suspicious. Bryn peeks under the table and loudly declares, “Pleco, I don’t think that’s your size!”

Pleco is quick to deny he’s hiding anything. But a quick snatch of the petticoat from Janai reveals exactly what he and Tino had been trying to hide. 

“...It must have fallen from the ceiling.” Pleco: master of deception. 

Anya raises a brow at Pleco. And finally, Pleco comes clean. “I just wanted to see if I could eat it like Goaty can.”

Anya sighs, and reminds Pleco of something important. “Pleco. Do you remember the ink?”

That gives Pleco some pause. Ink is poisonous, does that mean petticoats are poisonous too? But Goaty could eat them, so why couldn’t he? His brain is a little slow trying to put the pieces together, but eventually, he concedes. He won’t eat it. Maybe later though, after the trials and with a side dish of fish. 

Anya takes back her petticoat from Janai. Rather than tucking it away, she hands it to Tino, and says, “Why don’t you put this back where it came from?”

Tino, his face much redder than that of a Twili’s, heads upstairs to put it back. 

Once he leaves, Yura turns to Pleco. “So,” she says “You wanna try and fight each other?”

Pleco nods eagerly. “Sure! That sounds like fun!”

“Hold on,” says Dakon, before they can start punching each other for fun, We can’t just go around hitting each other. That’s going to attract guards, and they’re probably going to get the wrong idea. Besides, someone should stay behind, to watch the inn and make sure everything’s okay.”

Someone steps out of the kitchen, and the party turns to look. It’s Xaphyr, carrying out plates of food to customers. He is a waiter now.

Finally, after deciding that Xaphyr can handle keeping the peace on his own, the party decides to head out of town so they won’t get arrested for beating each other up. As they’re leaving Anya stops and asks where they’re going. 

“We’re going to fight each other!” Pleco replies rather cheerfully. 

Anya gives the group a worried look, and Yura is quick to explain. “We’re going to go train for the trials. We thought the best way to do that would be to fight each other.”

Anya nods, but doesn’t look convinced. “Just make sure you’re careful. I expect to see you all back here in one piece.” She says that last part with a pointed look at Yura and Pleco. She doesn’t want to see her adopted adventurers go to the hospital again. 

Janai is ready to start fighting people- especially Dakon. As Pleco reaches under the table to pat Goaty’s head, Janai pokes Pleco and then runs out, trying to get the Zora to follow him. Pleco looks up, confused, before he resumes petting the goat. 

Dakon, on the other hand, races out after Janai. Janai decides this would be the perfect time to race. Janai is faster, and manages to outspeed Dakon for a while. All the while, Dakon has no idea why they’re running in the first place. 

Once the two speedy party members leave, the rest of the group decides to leave the inn. Bryn is a little sad because she doesn’t have Dakon to ride around on anymore. Kaasha offers her shoulders instead. Pleco gives one last pat to Goaty, before he follows behind the rest and leaves to go fight with his friends. 

As Janai speeds through the streets of Castle Town, he risks looking over his shoulder to see how close Dakon is. He ends up tripping over a children’s toy and faceplants, very painfully, into the hard ground. 

Dakon catches up shortly after. He picks up Janai and asks, “Why are we running?” Janai is moody and doesn’t answer. 

The rest of the group catches up shortly after. Dakon ends up taking Bryn off the shoulders of a very disappointed Kaasha. 

On the way to the gates outside of town, Pleco is fascinated by all the colorful sights and sounds. He sees a potion shop, a shop that sells rare delicacies, a shop that sells something called Tem Flakes, and a shop named Mysterious Magical Trinkets. Pleco, enchanted by everything he’s seeing, does a u-turn in the middle of the street to go check out some of the shops. 

Fortunately, Yura has been honing her Pleco-is-gonna-do-something-stupid sense. She turns, gently grabs the Zora’s shoulder, and reminds him of what they’re doing. Pleco agrees to follow, but says he’d like to check out some shops afterwards. 

It doesn’t take long for the group to reach the town gates. The guards at the entrance give each other a knowing glance. “Leaving so soon?” one of them calls out. 

“There’s no shame in it,” the other chimes in. “Lots of adventurers have been heading out since hearing the announcement. Your group is just one of many, you know.”

Dakon steps over to one of the guards, who shrinks back at the Twili’s odd appearance. “Do you know a good place to fight people?”

The guard stutters for a moment, casting an anxious glance at the other guard by the gate. “I- what?”

“We’re going to stay in town for a while and participate in the trials, so we wanted to know if there was a good place we could fight each other.”

The guard casts another look at his friend. But the other guard is averting his eyes, pretending the odd group doesn’t exist. 

“Well,” he finally says, “There is an arena in town. But, you have to sign up to participate in it, and I think if you’re going to participate in the trials, it wouldn’t be a good idea to sign up for one or the other.”

Dakon nods. “Okay. We’ll just beat each other up in the woods, then.”

The group passes through the gate, leaving the two guards more confused than before. 

There aren’t any woods to fight in. However, there is a grove of a few trees that the group thinks would be a perfect place to try and train. 

Not everyone is going to fight, however, While some of the group decide to fight each other, a few group members decide to sit this one out, and just observe from the sidelines. Yura and Pleco want to try and fight each other, and Janai is determined to fight Dakon. Kimi doesn’t want to fight, and neither does Gado or Bryn. Kaasha wants to fight Pleco as well- she just wants to whack the fish. 

Pleco doesn’t realize the fight has started. Not until Kaasha walks over to Pleco and whacks him with her quarterstaff. Pleco turns to her and says “That hurt??” Yura quietly walks behind Pleco and stabs him. “Ow???” Suddenly, he realizes the fight is starting. 

Janai attacks Dakon with his whip. After using his whip attack, Janai sticks his tongue out at Janai and dodges back to try and avoid any incoming blows. Dakon attacks once, twice, three times with his bare fists. Only the last hit manages to connect. 

Now that he’s realized the fight is starting, Pleco draws his trident. He lunges at Kaasha and slashes at her with his trident. Once the hit connects, he turns to Yura, and lands a similar attack on her. 

Meanwhile, Janai uses his whip on Dakon again, once again trying to slide out of Dakon’s reach after every blow. 

Kaasha decides to conjure up an illusion to distract Pleco. But what on earth could possibly distract him? An illusion of Goaty about to drink some ink, apparently. Pleco freaks out, and rushes towards the illusion to try and stop Goaty from drinking the poisoned ink. This gives Yura an opportunity to attack as he runs past, though he doesn’t seem to care much. 

Pleco has completely forgotten about the fight, and rushes to try and stop Goaty from drinking the ink. Yura manages to hit him again as he races to his little friend. When he reaches Goaty, he reaches down to touch it, and when his hand passes through, he reliazes this wasn’t the real Goaty. 

He turns to look at Kaasha. “Why…?”

She tries to whack him with her quarterstaff, but misses. Yura, on the other hand, knocks the side of his head with the handle of her shorsword, and the Zora falls. 

Dakon has taken out the darts, and is trying to land one on Janai. Although Janai is quick, one of the darts manages to hit him for a good deal of damage. It also doesn’t help Janai that Dakon keeps vanishing into the shadows, a peculiar quirk of the Twili race. Janai, now low on health, starts to run away from Dakon. He tries to hide behind the trees, but Dakon is keeping a close eye on him, and sees everything he’s doing. 

With Janai running and Pleco knocked out, Dakon turns to Yura and Kaasha to see if they’d like to fight him. Yura wants to try and fight Janai. Realizing he now has two people on his tail, and after dodging a very close dart thrown by Dakon, Janai gives a very high-pitched shriek and runs. 

Kaasha, on the other hand, is done with fighting. She’s content to stay behind and poke at the unconscious Pleco. Really, she’s never seen an ocean Zora before, and this seems like the perfect opportunity to get a better look at his dumb face. However, all she really notices is that he’s tall, blue, and unconscious. 

Yura calls out to the running Janai, “Come back here you coward!!” Janai doesn’t listen. 

Dakon dashes like crazy to catch up to Janai to ask if he’s going to forfeit or not. Janai, as Dakon draws closer, pulls out the dead bird he’s been holding onto for four days. Somehow, by some miraculous mistake, it misses. 

Dakon grabs Janai and gives him a death stare. “Do you give?”

Janai gives. 

Kaasha opens Pleco’s mouth to look at his teeth. They are sharp and pointy.

Now, it’s down to just Yura and Dakon. Both a little battered, but both still up for a fight. Yura pulls out her bow and fires an arrow at Dakon. It hits, and Dakon turns to run for yura so he can attack. 

Kaasha looks at the long fin on Pleco’s head. She can sort of imagine how it’s used in the water.

Yura tries backing up to try and stay out of Dakon’s range as she nocks another arrow. This time, the arrow misses its target. Dakon is able to rush forward, however, his attack misses as Yura jumps to the side. So instead of attacking right away, Dakon melts into Yura’s shadow. 

Kaasha is officially out of the battle now, so she’s just going to sit on the sidelines with the rest of the group while occasionally poking the giant fish. 

Yura tries to stab the ground. Dakon appears out of her shadow, underneath Yura, trying to attack her. She manages to flip off of his shoulders and avoid the attack, only for Dakon to melt right back into her shadow. This angers Yura, and she tries to stab the ground again, only for her knife to slip on a rock and fall out of her grip. 

Dakon appears again, and they both try to go for the knife. Yura’s reflexes are faster, and she grabs her weapon back as Dakon slips into her shadow again. Yura’s patience is quickly running out. She grabs a tinderbox to try and light the ground on fire, thinking Dakon can’t slip into her shadow if there’s too much light to cast a shadow. 

While she’s grabbing the tinderbox, Dakon pops out of the ground, and manages to land a blow this time. 

Meanwhile, on the edge of the clearing, Gado is eating pebbles like popcorn. Bryn is watching with her chin in her hand, watching the distant figure of Yura stabbing the ground furiously and trying to light the ground on fire. By now, Pleco has been healed and is awake now too. Kaasha has stopped poking him, but she’s still watching him carefully. Janai, while in a sour mood, was healed up by the bards as well. 

Pleco notes he has a weird taste in his mouth. It kind of tastes like fingers. Kaasha denies having anything to do with that. 

After a few more attempts of trying to light the grass on fire, stabbing the ground, and shifting into the shadows, Yura and Dakon get tired of these repeated actions and decide to call it a draw. They decide they’re pretty evenly matched. 

“In sunlight,” Dakon comments. “If it wasn’t for the bright light, I would’ve beaten you.”

They return to the rest of the group. Janai isn’t in a great mood, but he goes to pick up his dead bird. Yura manages to convince him to leave it. When asked why, Yura tells him Kimi wouldn’t like it. Janai is convinced. 

They decide to head back into town, and go back to the inn. They go past the guards they met on the way out, who stare at the group like they’ve all grown a second head. But the group pays them little attention. 

Pleco wants to try and find the shop he saw on the way out of town. Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember where it is. Yura tries to help him remember, but sadly, she doesn’t remember either. Pleco is a little disappointed.

They don’t make any detours as they head back to the inn. When they enter, Anya is there to fuss over them. She was expecting them to be gone for about thirty minutes or so- they’ve been gone for about two hours. Coupled with the fact that a few of them look very roughed up, she’s more than a little concerned. 

“Would anyone like some patching up?” She asks. 

“I would like that,” says Janai.

“Janai would like that,” echoes Yura. 

In the end, everyone who was fighting gets patched up by Anya, as well as Xaphyr. As they’re tending to their wounds, Tino runs in, and he runs up to Bryn. 

“Hi!” he’s very excited to talk to her, especially since she seems to be the closest to his own age. 

“Hi,” she repeats, slightly less enthusiastic. 

“Did you go into any back alleys?”

Pleco smiles. 

“No,” says Bryn. “We went outside of town to fight each other.”

“Really?” Tino seems amazed. “It’s so cool that you’re my age and you get to fight! I can’t wait to fight, too!”

“You’re too young to fight,” Bryn gently corrects him. 

Tino pouts. “I am not! I’m five! That’s old enough!”

“Well, I’m eleven!” Bryn counters. “That means I’m older than you, and I can fight, but you’re still way too young.”

Tino thinks about that for a minute. He tries to count to eleven on his fingers, but it doesn’t go so well. When he finally understands how old eleven is, he is shocked. Even though he doesn’t know exactly how much eleven is, he doesn’t quite believe Bryn. He does, however, wander off to find Anya and ask when he gets to fight.

The group shares a concerned look. Except for Pleco. They wonder what sort of little fighting monster they’ve helped create. 

The night, fortunately, passes by without incident. Yura and Janai spend some time in the dining area, keeping an eye out for unruly customers. Pleco spends most of his time petting Goaty, and reassuring himself that the illusion he saw wasn’t the real thing, and Goaty didn’t actually drink any poisoned ink. Everyone eventually goes to bed, knowing that tomorrow, their trials would begin. 

The next morning, Anya wakes everyone up early, knocking on the doors of their rooms and reminding everyone of the trials that are starting today. Yura is not a morning person and stares into nothingness for a while, unwilling to get out from under her cozy blanket. 

As Janai is packing his things, he gives Pleco a buddy hug by slinging his twitching skeleton arm over Pleco’s shoulder. Pleco, grinning, returns the gesture with his own creepy arm. 

During breakfast, Anya rushes them a bit, reminding them to hurry so they won’t be late. They don’t want to make a bad first impression, after all. However, judging by the group’s track record, they’re not really concerned about making good first impressions. Still, the group rushes through breakfast, and Janai shovels down his food like crazy. Yura even manages to get through a meal without trying to steal anything, much to everyone’s surprise. 

Once everyone has eaten, Pleco pats Goaty and tells the little goat to not drink any ink while he’s gone. Anya wishes the group the best of luck, and Tino and Xaphyr wave goodbye as they all leave the inn. The streets are still dark, the sky tinged with grey as the sun begins its slow ascent into the sky. Though the streets are dark, they’re not completely empty. As the group arrives in the town square, they see there are other travelers waiting.

There is someone in the center of the town square, dressed in robes for the local religion of Hylia. He has brown hair that covers half his face, and he watches the crowd with a quiet, unwavering smile. 

He nods as the group arrives. Apparently, even though they sped through breakfast, they were still the last group to arrive. 

“Welcome,” the man in robes says, his voice carrying out over the town square, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “I’m glad to see so many of you here. As you all know, you are going to be participating in several trials to see if you are worthy of escorting the Prince and myself to the temple.”

“Who are you?” a voice from the crowd rises up. The man glances in the direction of the voice, before nodding in understanding. 

“Terribly sorry. My name is Bishop Shu, advisor to Prince Daltus.”

“Your name is Bishop Shu??” This time, the voice very clearly came from Pleco. 

Bishop Shu doesn’t fully understand the question. 

“Your name is really  _ Bishop Shu _ ?”

“Well,” he says, smile slightly strained, “Bishop is my title. But yes, my name is Shu.”

A mischievous glint enters Pleco’s eyes. 

Shu clears his throat. “To test your skills, we have set up three separate trials. There will be no risk of death, so you shouldn’t be too concerned. However,” he says this with a concerned glance at Bryn, “We do ask, once again, that you heavily consider whether you think you’re up to the task before proceeding.”

Bryn stares right back. 

With a nod, Shu turns. “Very well, then. Please, everyone, follow me.”

He leads all the groups that have gathered to a temple. It’s the same temple Bryn went to the other day when she was searching around the town. This time, rather than staying in the main area of the temple, Shu instructs the groups to head down a stairwell. They descend, and the atmosphere of the temple changes. They enter into a large room that is lit by a mysterious blue glow. The room is separated into two halves, cut in half by a large chasm down the middle of the room. The chasm is about twenty meters across. And stepping to the edge, it doesn’t seem to have a bottom. 

From somewhere, Shu’s voice echoes around them. “For your first trial, all you have to do is make it to the other side. Everyone in your group needs to make it across in order for you to proceed. You may begin.”

After looking around the room, Kimi spots something. There are hooks in the ceiling, directly over the chasm. They get the idea that they can possibly use some rope to swing across. 

Another group, one that also has a Rito, uses their Rito friend to carry teammates across the chasm. The group decides that would be a good idea to do as well- though, Kimi probably shouldn’t carry Gado. he weighs like 400 pounds. 

Dakon ties two ropes together. Kimi takes one end of the rope and flies it up to one of the hooks above the chasm, tying it securely to the hook. Once it’s tied, Kimi hands the rope off to Dakon. Bryn casts a spell on Gado to help him get across, and then Kimi carries Bryn across the chasm, because she is small and light. 

Dakon is the first to use the rope to get across. He fumbles a bit, but gets over without falling to his doom. 

Gado, thanks to the jumping boots spell Bryn put on him, is able to roll and jump across the chasm. He almost knocks everyone on the other side over like a bunch of pinballs. 

Dakon throws the rope back over to the other side, and Kaasha catches it. She starts to swing over, but her grip slips and she starts to fall. Gado casts a spell, fetherfall, which slows her movement speed down. Thanks to him, Pleco and Kimi are both able to reach over the edge and grab her before she falls. 

Once Kaasha is back on solid ground, Pleco looks up at the empty air. “Hey, Shu?”

No answer. 

“Shu?”

“...Yes?”

“Hi. Hey, if anything happens to us down here, will you save our  _ soles _ ?”

There is silence from Shu, as the rest of the party members suddenly realize ‘Shu’ is pronounced exactly like ‘shoe’. Seems like Pleco is a fan of bad puns. There is plenty of snickering at Shu’s expense to be had. 

Kimi is able to carry Janai and Yura over the ledge next, since they’re not too heavy for her to carry over. Kimi is the MVP of this team. 

Kaasha tries the rope again. This time, she’s able to hang on while the rope swings across, but begins to lose her grip as she nears the other side. Fortunately, Dakon is able to grab her and pull her onto the edge without anyone falling into the chasm. Gado gives Kaasha a big Goron hug, and she’s too stunned to protest. 

Pleco is the last one across. He manages to swing across the rope with no problems, beaming at everyone now that they’re all across and safe. 

They were the last group to finish. Shu appears on their side, and claps his hands. The lights of the room begin to dim. Turning their heads, the group sees the chasm shift and change. It was an illusion- the pit wasn’t bottomless. It was only a few feet deep. 

Pleco turns to Shu. “Hey Shu, that was pretty sneaky! I guess we should change your name to Sneaker!”

Shu watches Pleco like he’s dead inside. 

After an uncomfortable silence from Shu, he turns and instructs the group to go through the door behind him, which will lead to their next trial. 

They go through, and enter the next room. 

They enter a room with five identical paths, all leading to different places. Kaasha uses detect magic, and she’s able to sense that all the paths seem magical, though they share the same type of magic. After picking a path, they make their way through, and find a door at the end. The voice of Shu returns, and explains that, behind the door, there is a maze. The group needs to make their way through the maze and collect three items to proceed. 

“What kind of items?” Dakon asks. 

“You need to collect three orbs, all of them a different color. Once you find them, you will have completed your second trial.”

The door before them rumbles and slides up. They enter the maze. 

The ceiling is about nine or ten feet tall. In front of the group is a hallway leading to the right, and another hallway leading to the left. 

Pleco gets a great idea. “Hey, Gado!”

“Yes?”

“Break down the walls!”

Everyone stares at Pleco. 

“This is a maze, right? Well, if we break down the walls, we’ll be able to find our way around easier!”

Gado thinks it’s a great idea. He tries to roll into the wall- however, despite all his strength, he bounces back and the wall remains unaffected. They realize, suddenly, that the wall is probably protected by magic. 

They decide to check the left hallway first. Down the hallway, they find a door. Above it, in bright red letters, is the word Combat. Dakon runs back to check the other hallway. Down that hallway is a door labeled Riddles. After returning to the group and relaying what he found, the group decides to stick with combat for now. 

The Combat door opens. 


	7. Fighting Armor, Solving Riddles, and Slipping On Jellies

The Combat room is a large, square shaped room with glowing walls and pieces of discarded armor scattered around on the floor. Pleco, one of the first to enter the room, goes to poke at a piece of armor. It’s way too small to fit him. 

Yura, the next to enter, scans the room. She notices the armor is trembling slightly. 

Janai wants to wear some of the armor. Everyone holds him back and stops him from living his dream. 

Once the entire group has entered the room, the door slams shut behind them. The armor begins to tremble more, moving and scraping along the floor as it begins to assemble. Soon, eight empty suits of armor are assembled in front of the group. 

A voice echoes out. It’s not Shu’s voice- it’s coming from inside one of the suits. “Are you ready to begin the trial?”

Janai moves forward, like he still wants to climb inside the armor. The suit of armor draws its sword, as if to discourage Janai from such a thing. But Janai isn’t discouraged in the slightest. 

Dakon yells that he’s ready. The suit of armor lunges forward with his sword. The battle is on. 

Yura rushes forward to slash one of the suits with her sword. She makes contact, and while the suit of armor doesn’t seem to show any signs of damage, she gets the feeling she’s making a dent in its health. Dakon steps forward, putting himself between a suit of armor and Bryn and Kaasha. He attacks with a sword and has the same result as Yura. Getting an idea, Dakon decides to meld into the shadows, and goes inside the suit of armor. 

Pleco uses his trident against one of the suits of armor that Dakon isn’t inside. His trident kind of slides off the armor, but he does leave behind a scratch. 

Janai, jealous of the fact that Dakon is so much better that climbing inside enchanted armor, decides to try and get inside one of the suits nobody’s attacking yet. He uses his whip to try and disarm one of the suits of armor. He manages to disarm the armor, and he grapples the armor from behind, but the armor is able to shake Janai off. 

Bryn backs up against the door they came in, and uses Produce Flame on the armor Pleco is scratching. As she does, she hides behind Kimi, using her friend as a wall of feathers. Gado runs forward to the closest suit of armor and punches it. Despite the force behind the blow, the armor doesn’t crumble or dent it merely echoes. Seeing her chance, Kimi rushes towards the same armor and stabs it, leaving Bryn without a feathery shield. 

Kaasha isn’t quite sure what janai is doing, but it looks important. She attacks the armor he’s wrestling with magic missile. Somehow, she manages to miss Janai, and do a far bit of damage to the armor. She then moves to stand in front of Bryn since her feathery shield ran off.

The suits finally make their move. One of them attacks Yura, one attacks Pleco, and two of them attack Gado at once. Janai, Kimi and Dakon are able to dodge the attacks from the other suits of armor. Meanwhile, two of the armor sets begin to approach Bryn and Kaasha. 

Yura attacks the armor that slashed at her, returning a stab with her own sword. At this point, the armor actually begins to look like it’s having trouble holding itself together. 

From inside one of the suits of armor, Dakon emerges from the shadows. While inside the armor. Surprisingly, this ends well for him- his sudden emergence causes the armor to all but explode, bits and pieces of armor flying across the room, miraculously missing any of his teammates. However, as soon as the pieces land on the ground, they begin to reassemble themselves. Rather than focusing on the reforming pieces, Dakon turns his attention to the armor that is currently marching towards Bryn and Kaasha. He places himself between them and the armor, and slaps off the helmet and an arm. The armor crumbles, and doesn’t reassemble. 

Pleco attacks the armor again, causing minor vandalism. After attacking, he also takes a moment to heal himself a small bit, since that hit he took from the armor was more damaging than he would have thought. 

It’s time for Janai to continue his mission. Dakon has already beaten him, but he’s still going to do it. He slips behind the suit of armor he’s been grappling and cuts the straps holding the back pieces of the armor together. The pieces fall apart, and Janai successfully climbs into the armor while Bryn uses a fire attack on a nearby suit, being careful to not accidentally hit the suit that’s suddenly stuffed with a Janai. Kaasha joins Bryn with fire magic, but misses. Fortunately, her attack didn’t hit Janai, either. 

Gado begins to get suspicious. He casts Identify on the armor, wondering about it after it began to assemble on its own. He discovers that it’s being held together by a remote control spell. Seems like the best way to break the control over this armor is by attacking it. Gado decides the best way to attack it would be to sit on it. He attempts to grab one of the suits of armor, but as if sensing his intention, the armor slips out of his grasp.

Kimi attacks one of the suits with her dagger. She just scratches it a bit. Kind of like keying a car. After, she uses a spell to help heal Gado, who got ganged up on before. 

The suits of armor all seem to have a coordinated plan of attack. However, although they all attack at the same time, the only person to be hurt by any of them is Gado, who only takes a small amount of damage. 

Yura lunges for the nearest suit of armor and hacks at it with her sword. This time, she aimed lower, and manages to slice off the leg of the walking armor. It tries to hop around on one leg, but she delivers a swift kick to its remaining leg, and the armor topples over. Without hesitation, she climbs on top. Yura has the higher ground. 

Dakon attacks the suit of armor that’s still advancing towards Kaasha and Bryn, and rips off its arm. When he does, he gets the sense that the armor is being controlled magically, as if there’s an invisible string tying it together. Because as he rips off the arm, he can almost feel the string snap, and the rest of the armor falls into a heap. He waves his hand inside the arm, but doesn’t feel any string inside. Shrugging, he tosses the arm aside before advancing on the next walking pile of metal. 

Pleco tries to stick his trident inside the helmet of the suit. He misses his first stab, but on his second, he jams the prongs of his trident inside the helmet and manages to pop it off. The suit, suddenly, seems disoriented. It begins to stumble around as if it can no longer see where it’s going. Pleco decides to follow Yura’s lead and kick it over. Once it’s down, he kicks it. Even though it hurts his foot, it does do some damage to the armor. It twitches, and Pleco climbs on top of the armor. 

Janai is having fun with his armor, even if he’s having a hard time moving. Tha armor tries to move one way, while Janai tries to move the other way. This isn’t a good system at all. Janai decides to try stabbing the armor from the inside. On the outside, all anyone can hear is weird grunting and scraping coming from inside the armor. It’s a weird thing to hear in the middle of a fight. However, one of the legs comes loose from the magic binding. Janai’s leg is now extra heavy. 

Not that he seems to mind. “Yeah!” He yells, his voice echoing inside the armor, “Take that!”

Bryn shoots more fire at the armor. At this point, the armor she’s aiming at is starting to come apart. It’s hopping, headless, half armless, and half legless. After firing off the fireball, she heals Gado, since the poor rock has been tanking a lot of hits during this fight.

Gado, after getting healed, resumes his plan of trying to sit on the armor. He grabs one and throws it down, sitting on top of it. The armor bends and creaks under his goron might. Even though the armor has no face, and has no voice, it’s clearly suffering. Gado points to another suit of armor that’s still standing and says in a threatening voice, “You’re next, you rusty piece of junk!” The armor is offended. 

Kimi flies over and kicks the armor Gado is sitting on. She joins in on the insults. “I’ve seen scrap metal prettier than you!” The armor is hurt, in more ways than one. The suit is still struggling under Gado’s weight, taking more damage, and making a very weird, loud noise. It’s a frightening sound, but they hope that means they’re winning. Kimi gets attacked by the nearby offended armor.

Kaasha runs up to the miserable, half-burnt armor next to Dakon with her quarterstaff. The blow is enough to send the sad hunk of metal crumbling to the ground, falling to pieces. It doesn’t get back up. 

The suit of armor Yura is standing on rolls over, and causes her to fall off. However, it can’t stand up, since it only has one leg. It needs help. Pleco, while standing atop his suit of armor, tries to attack. However, it’s struggling to stand, and his attack misses. He nearly falls off, but manages to keep standing atop the wriggling piece of metal.

Xaphyr is having a great time back at the inn. 

Yura jumps back up on the armor that’s still struggling to get up. Apparently she likes to be tall. She stabs it while standing on top of it, and the poor thing’s arm falls off. After attacking it, she decides to reach into her bag and throw some chu jelly on the ground. If any other armor comes close, she hopes they’ll slip on the jelly and damage themselves. There’s no way this could go wrong. 

Dakon runs over to Yura, barely avoiding the chu jelly- much to the disdain of Janai. He attacks the suit of armor Yura is standing on, and the thing immediately falls apart. The crumbling of the armor beneath her causes Yura to fall on her back. Dakon moves between Yura and another suit. However, when he moves to swing at the armor, he slips on Yura’s chu jelly. He ends up on the ground like Yura. In the distance, Bryn laughs. 

Pleco tries to attack the suit he’s still standing on. Although he’s able to keep his balance atop the wriggling thing, it’s difficult to hit something when you’re trying to balance on it, and his blow glances off. When he looks up, he sees janai walking towards him in a suit of armor, and Dakon and Yura on the ground. After getting an idea from Yura, Pleco also takes out some chu jelly. He throws it on the ground with the same idea as Yura- that a wandering suit of armor would slip on it. Again, there’s no way this could possibly go wrong. 

From inside the armor, Janai is still struggling to control it. He takes his dagger and tries to stab a heart on the inside of the armor. This does just enough damage to cause the armor to go limp. Janai is happy, glad to finally have his own set of armor! The armor offers great protection- however, he now moves at a heavy, clanking disadvantage. At least he looks cool. 

After laughing at Dakon, Bryn uses another fire attack on a nearby suit of armor. The poor thing is limping along at this point. The chest plate comes off, as do both of its legs. But it’s still trying to crawl along the floor using its arms. It’s trying its best. 

Gado heals Kimi back to full health while he squishes a suit of armor to death. To death? Is the armor alive? Can it truly feel pain? Who knows. Kimi insults the armor by saying “I eat worms tougher than you for breakfast!” And then she stabs it. The armor crumbles beneath Gado, ending whatever existential crisis might have been brought on by its very existence. 

Kaasha runs over to Dakon, her quarterstaff drawn and ready to do some serious damage. However, she fails to notice the puddle of chu jelly. She falls on her butt next to the other idiots. From somewhere on the battlefield, Bryn is watching and losing her shit. 

The armor that is still down tries to struggle to get up on its one leg. Dakon kicks it and it falls back down to the ground. 

Pleco is having a better time staying upright than some of the other adventurers. A notable feat, considering he’s trying to stay upright on a suit of armor that seems determined to try and shake him off. It tries to attack him, but it’s missing its helmet. It can’t see him, and so, the attack misses. 

Yura manages to stand up. She walks around the chu jelly, being careful to not step in it after seeing so many companions fall, and attacks the armor that’s struggling to get up. It falls apart in the middle of the jelly. Once it’s down, she moves over to Kaasha to help her up. 

Dakon gets up shortly after, managing to stay upright, despite the chu jelly underneath. He attacks the armor Pleco is standing on, and the armor falls apart. 

Despite the armor falling apart beneath him, Pleco manages to stay balanced on top of the armor as it falls away. Pleco is a pro at standing upright! Except when he steps off the armor and onto normal flat ground, where there’s a puddle of chu jelly he set! He slips and lands on his face. He has to crawl away from the chu jelly, sliding away from the slippery spot. Once he’s free of the slide radius, he stands up and starts to head for Kimi and Gado. 

Gado is sitting on the last armor they need to defeat. It’s armor is creaking and groaning, but the thing won’t die. Janai takes off his new helmet and throws it at the armor. Wow, that’s got to be really messed up for the armor. It’s getting crushed, and now it has to deal with the disembodied head of its friend being thrown at it? That’s messed up. The helmet hits its leg, and the leg pops off. It’s struggling to stay together at this point. 

Bryn sets the suit of armor on fire. It’s still twitching. Gado is fine, though. He’s a Goron. He’s fireproof. 

From atop the armor, Gado looks down at the armor. “Your mother was a tin can.” The armor is crushed. Literally. It crumbles beneath the might of a pointed final insult. 

The group takes a moment to catch their breath, relieved they won that fight. Pleco smiles. “Hey!” he calls out. When there’s no response, he tries again. “Hey, Shu!”

“...Yes?” The voice of the Bishop can be heard, his voice confused at hearing Pleco call for him. 

“Shu, that was really tough. You know, I’m starting to think you sent us to  _ bootc _ amp!”

Shu makes a noise like a choke and then breaks contact. 

Pleco smiles, while several members of the group facepalm. He’s not making these puns to be mean. He’s honestly just having some fun at Shu’s expense. 

A different voice speaks up. It’s not Bishop Shu- it’s a different voice. The voice congratulates on the group for making it through the first room. In the center of the room, a pedestal appears with a red orb. 

Pleco doesn’t seem to care about the orb. He starts poking at some pieces of armor. Dakon suggests Pleco take some, but the voice is quick to speak up again. “Ah, I’m sorry, but you’re not allowed to take anything.”

It doesn’t matter too much to Pleco. He’s a big boy. The armor is too small for him. 

From inside the armor, Janai tries to cut out the little heart he made with his knife. He’s determined to try and keep something as a memento. Unfortunately, all he does is make a lot of noise. It doesn’t work. 

Dakon goes over to the orb and grabs it. However, most people in the group think that Kaasha should be the one to hold onto it. She’s one of the few responsible people in the group, and since she’s already the group treasurer, it only makes sense for her to hold onto important things. They know she won’t lose them. And so, Dakon hands over the red orb to Kaasha. 

The door they came through opens. And, along two other walls, two new doors open up. After dashing down one of the hallways, Dakon discovers a new room that’s labeled ‘Chase’ in blue letters. 

They discuss whether they should go through the Riddle door, or the Chase door. As a group, they decide it might be a good idea to go for the Riddle door. Maybe that way, they can catch a break after all that fighting. 

After hearing their decision, Shu’s voice echoes around them. “...Are you sure you want to do this trial next?”

“Well,” responds Pleco, “we have to take this one  _ step _ at a time!”

“Right!” says Dakon, getting in on the fun “This seems like it’ll be a  _ shoe _ -in!”

Shu disconnects again. 

The group enters the Riddle room. Much like last time, the door shuts behind them. Inside, the room is filled with items. The items range in size, color, and make. It doesn’t seem like there’s a limit to the sort of items that are scattered around. And in the room, near the four corners of the room, are four pedestals. Each one has a different riddle inscribed on them, and the group reads them over.

Pedestal 1

_ My life can be measured in hours, _ _   
_ _ I serve by being devoured. _ _   
_ _ Thin, I am quick _ _   
_ _ Fat, I am slow _ _   
_ __ Wind is my foe

Pedestal 2

_ You can see nothing else _ _   
_ _ When you look in my face _ _   
_ _ I will look you in the eye _ _   
_ __ And I will never lie.

Pedestal 3

_ Walks in the wind _ _   
_ _ Runs in the rain _ _   
_ _ Makes dry oceans in the sun _ _   
_ _ Counts time, stops clocks _ _   
_ __ Swallows kingdoms, gnaws rocks

Pedestal 4

_ I run but cannot walk,  _ _   
_ _ sometimes sing but never talk.  _ _   
_ _ Lacks arms, have hands;  _ _   
_ _ lacks a head but have a face.  _ _   
_ __ What am I?

Everyone has an idea of what they need to do. They need to find the items that correspond to the riddles. And so, everyone starts looking for items. 

Pleco starts looking for a clock. He doesn’t find a clock, though he does find a shoe. The irony of this is not lost on him.

Bryn and Dakon start looking for a candle. Pawing through the items, they fins dome socks, a bottle a sword… and eventually, they’re able to find a candle. They place it on Pedestal 1. Nothing happens. 

Dakon decides to also look for something with sand. He finds a shoe. It must be because he tried to join in on the shoe puns. However, he does manage to find an hourglass. He puts the hourglass on pedestal 3. Nothing happens. 

Pleco manages to look past the shoe, and rummaging through the items, eventually comes across a clock. He puts it on pedestal 4. Nothing happens. 

Yura starts looking for a mirror. She sees a picture frame, a pair of glasses, and other reflective things, but she doesn’t see a mirror. Telling her idea to the rest of the group, they all begin to search through the items for a mirror. 

Bryn finds a picture of an older woman. It’s a picture of Zelda, the princess who fought Calamity Ganon and became Queen of a new world. Even though she’s older in the picture, she’s still the picture of serene beauty and grace. 

Dakon tries to put a pair of glasses on the pedestal. Nothing happens. Pleco sits on the pedestal. Nothing happens. The most reflective thing in the room is a sword, but even that isn’t the right answer to the riddle. 

It takes the group a while to figure out this puzzle. But eventually, Bryn is able to find a box. Opening it up, she finds a music box, with a little mirror inside. Smiling, she sets the music box on pedestal 2.

Nothing happens. 

The group wonders what they could have gotten wrong, they’re pretty sure they got everything right. Dakon smashes the glass of the hourglass, allowing sand to pour onto the pedestal. 

Something happens. 

The four pedestals sink into the ground. In the center of the room, a pedestal carrying a green orb appears. Kaasha takes it and adds it to her bag, along with the red orb. They’re almost done with the maze!

There’s just one more room to go through. Down the hall is an entrance to the room marked ‘Chase’. Just one last challenge standing between them, and finishing this maze. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> This story is written by multiple people and the author is likely to change between chapters as we switch things around amongst ourselves!  
> Most of it however, is written by our amazing Zora fighter, Pleco! Go give them some love over on **thepreciousem.tumblr.com!**
> 
> You can also find the rest of the group and more shenanigans, including wonderful art, on **dungeonsanddodongos.tumblr.com!**


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